liquor was banned in Attappady, Kerala’s largest Adivasi region, in 1995 but it has only brought disaster to the tribal society. Hundreds of tribal men died and many women’s lives were lost due to over-consumption leading to the orphaning of thousands of children as ban brought a situation where alcohol flowed freely through the Adivasi Urs (settlements).
For the Adivasis of Attappady, victims of authorities’ half-baked development programmes, overcoming the ban was easy. They resorted to distilling at home, bought whatever “thing” the suddenly-flourished liquor mafia provided them with or procured the “coloured poison” from towns like Anakkatty on Kerala’s border with Tamil Nadu where there was no Prohibition.
The big question being asked everywhere in Kerala now is whether the State is destined to face the same fate as that of Attappady as the Government has started implementing the total-liquor-ban-in-ten-years programme without considering the possible after-effects of such a move. And most social researchers and volunteers in de-addiction missions say, “Yes”.
“We can’t say that the ban will produce an Attappady-like situation across the State because realities are different among different sections of the Kerala society. But this liquor ban is bound to fail for several reasons and the most important among them is that the people are not yet ready for such a drastic step,” says psychologist-counselor SB Panicker.
Psychologists say liquor ban does not end the social and economic realities which form the basis of dependence on alcohol for Keralites. “There are several factors in the society that force the people to mystify their minds with booze. By letting those problems continue and denying to people the only solution they have got will produce more problems,” Panicker points out.
That alcohol is the source of crimes like rape and incest is a misconception, say psychologists. In the most infamous cases of sexual abuse like the Suryanelli, Paravur and Vithura scandals, liquor had not been even a contributing factor, they say. “This ban is introduced more out of political reasons rather than social concerns,” says a Kochi-based counselor.
Excise and police officials say that the two forces are not equipped to face the challenges of the liquor mafia which may try to cash in on Prohibition by pushing in illegal liquor trade with the support of avaricious politicians. They also say that the Excise and police cannot ensure that no liquor flowed into Kerala from the neighbouring States.
“Kerala’s borders with Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are over 700 kilometres long and it is literally impossible to prevent flow of liquor sold in those States into Kerala. Then there is the Mahe enclave of Pondicherry where there are 64 outlets in less than one sq km. You can’t question every Keralite travelling to these States on the intention of his trip,” said a former Excise official.
The staff strength of the Kerala Excise Department is just 4,000 and the personnel deployed on actual enforcement duty are less than 3,000. The 54,000-strong police force in Kerala is already feeling manpower crunch. With such a meager enforcement wing, the Government cannot ensure effective implementation of the liquor ban, experts say.
Another threat the State is facing in the context of total ban on licensed India-made foreign liquor is the possibility of the emergence of the spurious liquor mafias which have caused loss of several lives in the State in the past. Kerala has witnessed at least three big liquor tragedies in the past three decades.
“We have enough reasons to believe that ban cannot be effective here. We had Prohibition here once. In the absence of consumable alcohol, people had resorted to using lamp spirit, after-shave lotions and even carpenter’s varnish apart from the spurious liquor the mafias supplied. It was in such a context that Prohibition was withdrawn in 1967,” said a retired top police official.