Biju Patnaik had faced the biggest challenge in his tenure as Chief Minister when 200 people lost their lives due to the liquor tragedy in 1992. It was one of the most tragic incidents due to liquor. This incident forced Patnaik to play an extremely tough administrator’s role to impose ban on country liquor and Mahuli. Since then, the debate has been on in terms of total ban on liquor in Odisha, albeit without any success.
Going by the latest statistics, there has been a steady increase in the consumption of India Made Foreign liqour (IMFl) by 48 per cent and beer by 62.76 per cent and most importantly, countryliquor by 31.70 per cent in Odisha. It’s noteworthy that people in Odisha consumed nearly 1crore litre of country liquor in 2015-16.
looking at the legal, administrative and policy dimensions, the Naveen Patnaik Government needs a serious look at the existing legal provisions concerning the preparation, consumption and sale of liquor. In Odisha, there already exists the Odisha Prohibition Act, 1939 enacted during former Chief Minister Biswanath Das’s tenure and amended as the Odisha Prohibition Act, 1956 during the tenure of another Gandhian leader NabakrushnaChoudhury. A realistic and drastic reform in this legal structure will certainly usher in a much needed space and scope for imposition of ban on liquor in the State.
The Odisha Chief Minister should show statesmanship in banning alcohol for the following key ten reasons (1) easy access to alcohol in Odisha has made many public spaces inaccessible for women. By banning this, the ruling Government will be popular among women and young girls, who are the first-hand victim of the rise of alcoholism; ( 2) alcoholism ultimately leads to poverty and there will be positive effect on the poor class’s life, if the Government limits its accessibility and availability; (3) there is a perception growing among people that the Government is encouraging consumption of liquor as it generates huge revenue at the cost of poor people’s life, which is very dangerous for societal growth; (4) addiction is a health problem, not a morale one as wrongly being perceived by the State; (5) alcohol abuse is another reason, why Odisha has the largest number of widows under 30 years of age. Besides, major crimes and accidents are fuelled by alcohol. This also leads to sexual harassment of women and rising instances of robberies; (7) the rich may spend fair amount in boozing, however the problems manifest more in poor masses whose meagre income suffers severe dent by male liquor addicts. When sons see their father consuming alcohol, they get tempted to start drinking too; so total ban will help save thousands families; (8) Now a days, it is not only students, kids in Odisha are reported to have started drinking as early as nine years of age; so, if the Government does not check this, it will ruin three generations, (9) women’s hard earned money is spent by the male in buying liquor in many parts of rural Odisha, which is affecting food security and nutrition of whole family; (10) the Government should not earn revenue , taking advantage of the weakness of people as liquor addiction is seen to be gradually increasing across the State and people are dying with the rising alcoholism.
The Youth Policy of the Government of Odisha pledges to make Odisha villages liquor free. Despite policy pronouncements, there has been serious lack of strategic decision making. Here lies the crucial test for Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for bringing in an element of statesmanship into his style of leadership and mode of governance in ending this menace to uplift the poor from double burden of both alcoholism and poverty.
(The writers are policy analysts)