This story is from July 2015. The
call for assembly elections had started. The Chief Minister of the state Nitish
Kumar arrived in Bihar's capital Patna in a program of women's self-help group
'Jeevika'.
As soon as Chief Minister Nitish
Kumar finished his speech and started coming off the stage, 'Jeevika Didis'
sitting in the audience gallery raised the issue of alcohol addiction spreading
in the state and demanded a complete ban on alcohol.
The 'Jeevika' model of the State
Rural Livelihoods Mission of the Government of Bihar has been quite famous.
Many women's organizations,
including this self-help group of women, had been demanding liquor ban for a
long time but that day they were getting the opportunity to say all this
directly in front of the Chief Minister.
Nitish Kumar was getting off the
stage but he turned back and smilingly announced that if he returns to power,
he will introduce liquor ban in the state.
After the victory of the Grand
Alliance in 2015, Nitish Kumar kept this promise and announced liquor ban in
the state.
The Chief Minister blamed the
increasing addiction to alcohol for domestic violence and 'family strife'.
Apart from this, for the violence, exploitation and poverty against women,
alcohol addiction was also cited as a big reason.
In May 2016, a month after the
ban, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said that there has been a decrease in crime
due to prohibition.
Since when did prohibition start?
Following the instructions of
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, the ban on liquor in Bihar was implemented under
the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act which started from 1 April 2016.
This law says, "No person
can manufacture, distribute, transport, store, store, buy, sell or consume any
intoxicating substance or liquor."
There is a provision for
imprisonment ranging from a fine of at least Rs 50,000 to 10 years for
violating the law.
At the same time, in cases where
a manufacturer or supplier gives illicit liquor to someone and if someone dies
by drinking it, then there is a provision for capital punishment.
what happened next ?
Liquor ban was implemented with
great vigor but its biggest burden was on the state's revenue.
Bihar is losing more than Rs
4,000 crore in revenue every year due to prohibition. The state government had
then said that it would better manage finances and resources to make up for it.
On the revenue deficit from
liquor ban, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said, "Social harm is more than
this. We will compensate the deficit through other means."
After some big criminal incidents
in the state after alcoholism in May 2016, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar told a
private news TV channel, "There have been a couple of incidents here which
we are all saddened about and strict action should be taken for that It has
been. And as long as they do not make their culprits stand in the court of law,
they will not sit in peace. But overall you will see that crime has decreased
in Bihar since the ban.
The Chief Minister talked about
social harm from alcohol and reduction in crime due to prohibition of alcohol.
But, if you look at the figures of Bihar today, it seems that there is not much
change due to prohibition.
This is also evident in the rally
and speeches of the ruling party in which the ban of liquor comes to the end as
a mark of success of Nitish government or the issue is often disappeared.
After all, what is the reason for
this? Sudha Varghese, founder of Nari Gunjan, a non-governmental organization
working for Dalit women and girls in Bihar, says that three to four months of
prohibition may have seen good results, but today the situation is the same
again.
She says, "Alcohol is still
being manufactured or sold in Bihar today and there are questions on the role
of the police in it. It is one thing to make the law and it is another to
implement it. It is the responsibility of the police to enforce this law.
"
Crime against women after
prohibition?
Sudha Varghese also says that
there is no reduction in crime against women due to prohibition.
She says that even today, the
news of rape and molestation are filled in the newspapers of Bihar.
Sudha Varghese's statement is
also confirmed by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data. After the
prohibition, there was a slight decrease in crime against women, but after that
the cases related to them started increasing again.
If we look at the NCRB data, in
2016, the year when liquor ban came into force, then that year there were less
cases of crime against women, but in the following years, the cases of crime
against women increased rapidly.
Bihar's percentage of total
crimes against women in India decreased to 4 percent in 2016 but then it
increased to 4.6 percent in 2019. According to this, the state of Bihar in
India is ranked eighth in crime against women.
Alcohol has also been said to be
responsible for domestic violence against women.
If we look at the figures, we
will see that after the prohibition, the same cases of domestic violence were
coming in 2016-17, but in the last two years, domestic violence cases have
decreased in Bihar.
In the same way, if we see rape
cases in the state, then after one year of prohibition, it definitely decreased
but after that the cases suddenly increased.
Alcoholism claims social change
There was also a demand for
liquor ban 'Jeevika Didis'. Munni Devi Jeevika is sister of Araria district of
Bihar. She says that alcoholism has reduced the incidence of domestic violence
and Now money is also left in homes.
However, she also agrees that the
smuggling of liquor has increased and liquor is also available, but due to
being very expensive, poor and low income people are not even drinking.
However, the hemp has started to be drunk.
The rapid increase in revenue
from liquor in Bihar also started during the Nitish Kumar government.
Liquor shops in the state had doubled
between 2005 and 2015 and the revenue from liquor during the Lalu Prasad Yadav
government in 2004-05 was Rs 272 crore, which was Rs 3,300 crore in 2013-14.
The Bihar government claimed that
due to prohibition, people in the society would spend more money on their
household needs and consume healthier things.
In the year 2018, the think tank
Asian Development Research Institute (ADRI) and Development Management
Institute (DMI) conducted two separate researches and quoted them that the
purchase of expensive sarees in Bihar, consumption of cheese has increased
manifold and household Women have played a big role in taking decisions.
However, both these researches
were done with the guidelines of the Government of Bihar.
AN based in Patna Professor DM
Diwakar of Sinha Institute of Social Sciences calls the results revealed after
the ban on alcoholism as a 'mix picture'.
They say that this prohibition
has different effects on rural and urban Bihar. They see its positive results
in rural areas, but at the same time say that it has not changed so much that
people have started buying two-wheelers, eating milk and curd and wearing
expensive saris.
Professor Diwakar says,
"There was liquor ban in 2016 and demonetisation in the same year. People
started buying vehicles during the ban but it had nothing to do with
prohibition. After the lockdown, the situation is worse now. The economic
situation is absolutely right No. Not only the poor but the lower middle and
middle class families are going through economic crisis, unemployment is at
peak, then in such a situation what will people drink alcohol. "
What does the ruling party say?
The ruling party of Bihar
believes that big social changes have come from the ban.
Rajiv Ranjan Prasad, spokesperson
of the ruling party JDU, tells BBC Hindi that not only has the reduction of
crime against women been reduced due to the prohibition of liquor, but the
money is being spent in the right place and accidents have also happened in the
state.
He says, "The state
government is releasing criminal data per lakh population because this state
has a dense population. Accordingly, Bihar is ranked 29th in crime cases
against women in India and 33rd in rape cases. Number. The cases of harassment
of women have decreased, road accidents have come down. Apart from this, the
health department has recorded a decrease in cases of alcohol-related diseases.
"
The Bihar statistics of the NCRB
have also been decided per lakh population and only the data provided by the
states includes the NCRB in its data.
However, Rajiv Ranjan Prasad says
that if some people want to tarnish the image of Bihar, then they should not
fall into the trap.
Nearly every day smuggling liquor
is caught in Bihar. Last year, it was revealed through a story in BBC Hindi
that at least three liters of liquor was recovered in Bihar every minute and an
arrest was made within 10 minutes.
In the electoral environment,
liquor smuggling has increased rapidly and liquor is being caught but Professor
Diwakar questions the administration for not breaking the syndicate of liquor
smugglers.
He says, "There is no week
when liquor is not caught. Alcoholism is a positive step, but political will is
coming in the way of its completion. The syndicate of liquor does not break
down just by holding a small career in jail." Is put in. "
JDU spokesperson Rajeev Ranjan
Prasad on the contrary, does not kill murders or crimes in the country after
the implementation of IPC and CRPC, as the syndicate of liquor smugglers does
not end and liquor smuggling increases.
They say that a big escalating
decision cannot be denied in this way.
Due to prohibition, criminal
cases related to this are increasing continuously. Earlier this year, the Patna
High Court had said that nearly 2.06 lakh cases related to violation of prohibition
of liquor law are pending in the courts of Bihar, which is an additional
pressure on the judiciary.
