Kicking up to a new ‘high’, Odisha seems to be going the binge way as the per capita annual liquor consumption in State has zoomed up by a whopping around 500 per cent in a decade-and-a-half.
The consumption of liquor per capita annually in this fiscal has neared to around 5 litres from mere around 700 ml in 2001-02, reveals an analysis of the alcohol lift-off data available with the State Excise Department. The total liquor sales in 2014-15 have touched a new high of around 1,900 lakh litres vis-à-vis mere around 250 lakh litres in 2000-01.
Wine consumption alone in State has clocked an explosive growth of over 83 per cent in between 2010-11 and 2015-16.
The State, which was already among top-10 beer guzzlers in the country since 2011, keeps ‘kicking’ up well to post annual per capita beer consumption to the tune of over 2 litres in 2015 – 16 till October.
Though the Excise Department has no detailed data to show the rural-urban divide, the National Sample Survey (NSS) study on non-food item consumption in the State released last year indicates that urban Odisha drowns more in drinking than their counterparts in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand.
If the NSS data is to be believed, then urban Odisha is seemingly seen raising a toast more for desi daru (country liquor) than their counterparts in its neighbouring States. The State Excise Department data too confirms this trend as lifting-off of country liquor as a whole has been highest in State followed by beer.
The NSS study further reveals that around 8 per cent in urban and 10 per cent in rural Odisha go for desi daru against around 5 per cent and 2 per cent respectively for beer and wine. However, the NSS study shows that toddy or mahua is the second-most preferred drink among the tipplers in rural Odisha.
The binge pattern in Odisha is also not uniform across the State.
Mayurbhanj and its neighbours are seen to be ‘high’ in ‘spirits’ as they booze their way up to the topmost drinkers in State with around 1 litre country liquor consumption per month. But the NSS data reveals that coastal and southern Odisha finish top beer/wine guzzlers in State.
However, an analysis of Excise Department data reveals very interesting trends.
While State headquarters Khurda topped the beer/wine binge-chart, the new ‘spirited-up’ districts racing fast are the impoverished land of Kalahandi and Balangir. Industrial districts like Sundergarh, Jharsugada and Angul figure ‘high’ in the ‘spirited list’ in State.
Among coastal districts, Ganjam seems running a close chase with Khurda.
The ‘spirited’ surge could well be attributed to presence of around 3,500 sale-outlets across the districts of State. On the contrary, the State has mere 1,372 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHC). Moreover, the top drinker districts in State coincidentally have recorded the highest incidence of crime or have a higher rate of crime. Though the State has seen a windfall of Rs 2,038 crore liquor excise revenue last fiscal, no new PHC or police station has come up in high-binge districts last year.
