A comparison of liquor sales figures for 2013-14 with those of 2012-13 shows that boozing in Kerala may be coming down marginally on an annual basis but the closure of about 60 per cent of the bars in the State on April 1 has not succeeded in accelerating that slide. In fact, the bars’ closure seems to have caused a spurt in spending on booze since April 1.
A glimpse at the scenario will convince anyone that the Government-enforced closure of 418 of the total 734 bars in the State, all owned by private licensees, in the name of failure to comply with stipulated quality standards has already proved wrong the theory of the Congress-led ruling UDF that consumption of alcohol in society is directly proportional to availability.
“The correct theory is this: The increase in the rush at the bars that are still open and retail outlets is directly proportional to the effect of the closure of 418 bars,” said Velayudhan, a regular boozer at Velappaya Road near Thrissur. Sociologists now say that it is not availability control but awareness drives that can ensure decrease in boozing.
The 418 bars, which were catering to low-income and working class boozers, are closed since April 1 because of the refusal of the Government to renew their licenses due to lack of required facilities. The immediate fallout is that most of these “poor” boozers have now been forced to approach bars catering to the elite or to depend on cheap, illicit liquor.
It has now become obvious that a clear Government decision on these closed bars will not come before the declaration of election results as the ruling Congress is a house divided over the issue. Though most leaders want a quick decision, one section headed by PCC chief VM Sudheeran, claiming to be strictly anti-liquor, is firm that the licenses should not be renewed.
Apart from the increase in rush at the retail booze outlets and elite-class bars, the closure has also caused the birth of a new business in liquor in several parts of Kerala. Those who can afford to stand in queue at the retail outlets for long hours would buy booze in bulk and retail them on their own to consumers in their localities extracting unimaginably high prices.
“Those who had been spending about Rs 150 a day on liquor before March 31 will now have to spend over Rs 400 for the same quantity of booze at ‘camps’ like mine,” says Tojen, an illegal vendor in a Thrissur village. “I have to sell the thing at four times its original price considering the time I spend at the outlet, the risks I am taking and other factors,” he says.
Officials of the Kerala State Beverages Corporation (Bevco), the State-run monopoly liquor distributor of Kerala, admit that the per-day sales through its 337 outlets and about four dozen others of the ConsumerFed and SupplyCo, both Government organizations, have shown a spurt by a minimum of four times after the 418 substandard bars closed on April 1.
Sociologist BS Panicker says that the claim of the Congress on its commitment to eradication of the so-called liquor menace on the basis of the closure of the 418 bars is nothing but hypocrisy. “It is just a short-term political game. At the end of it, Sudheeran will have to act the weeping child’s role by saying his colleagues influenced by the liquor mafia betrayed him,” he says.
Sociologists say that neither prohibition nor cutting down of availability is going to bring down Kerala’s liquor menace which is causing serious social and family problems. According to them, the problem in Kerala is not liquor as such but it is the underlying social and psychological factors that are forcing Keralites to hook to booze.