The discourse around liquor prohibition is regaining momentum in political campaigns and movements across India. Over the years, pro-prohibition stances have been justified under various guises–religious, moral, economic and social. The debate is now steering towards a feminist understanding of the detrimental effects of alcohol on society.
Women in India are currently at the forefront of the prohibition movement. From Bihar to Andhra Pradesh, women have taken to the streets to pressurise state governments into banning alcohol, citing its adverse effects within their households–namely gender-based violence and financial strains.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar fulfilled his electoral promise to act on the issue, passing a law that completely prohibits the production, distribution, transportation, collection, storage, possession, purchase, sale, and consumption of alcohol across the state. The recently elected Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Jaganmohan Reddy, has also repeatedly expressed his desire to ban alcohol following protests by women across the state. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, too, are witnessing calls for state-wide liquor prohibition.
Prohibitionists justify their stance by citing incidents of rising domestic violence, sexual abuse, and family discord. The rationale behind the feminist prohibitionist argument stems from the belief that alcohol consumption incapacitates men and causes their violent behaviour. Various studies demonstrate causal links between alcohol consumption and intimate partner violence–behaviour in an intimate relationship that causes physical, psychological, or sexual harm to those in the relationship.
On a national level, 46% of women report alcohol-fuelled intimate partner violence, compared to 25% who report non-alcohol-fuelled violence. Further, an average rural family spends 2.5% of its income on intoxicants, with alcoholics spending one-fifth to one-half of their total family income on alcohol.
While the logic and rationale behind pro-prohibition is supported by the causal link between alcohol and increase intimate partner violence, does a complete ban on alcohol truly protect women from violence and poor families from financial hardship?
For instance, following the total prohibition of alcohol in Gujarat, alcohol availability remains more or less the same as it has merely created an avenue for a thriving black market. The Gujarat police seizes Rs. 100 crores worth of liquor every year. Yet, 40% of women in Gujarat report that their husbands consume alcohol regularly. Therefore, a ban does little to alleviate the financial hardships of poor families who spend a large portion of their income on alcohol as it does not significantly deter consumption. Accessibility to alcohol is made possible by the growth of the liquor mafia and the abundance of spurious liquor. A 2011 report that investigating the death of 148 people in Ahmedabad after consuming alcohol revealed that the local police were aware of 467 bootleggers, but refused to act on it. Further, of the 70,899 violations of the prohibition law, the conviction rate stands at a mere 9%.
Therefore, in spite of the ban, due to the presence of a flourishing black market and the conspicuous inaction of law enforcement, the burden of alcoholism on women in Gujarat is greater than the national average. While 17% of Indian women are subjected to violence after consumption of alcohol by their spouses, in Gujarat this number has risen to 26%. following the implementation of the ban. Hence, the monumental failures of Gujarat's alcohol ban illustrate that a ban does not adequately restrict accessibility, consumption, domestic violence against women.
A ban also disproportionately impacts the incomes of thousands of marginalized communities, especially ones that traditionally produce alcohol to sustain their livelihoods. For instance, communities like Pasis and Masajars–where men and women traditionally engaged in the manufacture of toddy and liquor–were not provided with alternative means of securing their livelihoods. Moreover, in Bihar, alcohol prohibition affected the livelihoods of 35,000 individuals. Further, out of 1.5 lakh arrests made under the law, OBCs accounted for 34.4%, SCs for 17.1% and STs for 6.8%. Hence, a community that comprises of 42% of the state’s population bears 70% of the brunt of the situation. Consequently, women were forced to sell their assets and other means of their livelihood to secure bail or seek legal assistance.
In order to formulate a successful policy to protect women from the burdens of alcoholism, it is essential to set up formal institutions to protect women from such abuse. Currently, while marital rape is not a crime in India, domestic violence has been criminalised. However, the lack of institutional support has caused the law to be practically ineffective, forcing women to be trapped in a cycle of violence. Strengthening institutions and providing medical help, financial aid and legal assistance is crucial for empowering women to stand against such abuse.
Setting up institutional assistance must be complemented by programs that tackle societal and traditional norms. Two academic theories address the cause of intimate partner violence–marital dependence theory and resource theory. According to marital dependence theory, economically independent women are at a lower risk of intimate partner violence. Resource theory views families as a power system. It suggests that men with fewer economic resources–financial or societal–are more likely to use violence to assert control. Hence, rather than viewing consumption of alcohol as the root cause, the skewed power dynamics of the society must be recognised as the primary issue.
The goal must, therefore, be to ensure societal and financial independence for women. This can be achieved by legal and social support for victims of domestic violence to enforce the existing laws, thereby disestablishing the impunity with which men commit such crimes against women. However, this must be complemented by institutional support that empowers women to feel confident and safe in reporting such acts of violence. Alongside legal and institutional provisions, there is a need to shift the societal norms that have entrenched and normalized a brutal, masculine culture. Education and awareness programs can be used to dismantle a deeply patriarchal structure that thrives on the subjugation of women.
In its current form, alcohol prohibition is a populist policy aimed at securing the votes of women. However, it fails to adequately account for black market production, which ensures that accessibility to and consumption of alcohol–and consequently violence against women–remains relatively untouched. Simultaneously, it fails to provide alternative livelihoods for vulnerable and disenfranchised sections of India's population, many of whom rely on alcohol production to make ends meet. A truly feminist understanding of the issue requires a long-term inter-generational social conditioning program that tackles India's endemic patriarchy and misogyny rather than demonising alcohol and stripping men of accountability.
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