As moonshine deaths spike in India’s Bihar, even supporters of its alcohol ban say the law has ‘failed’
- Chief minister Nitish Kumar is under fire for continuing his almost 7-year-old alcohol ban, despite a growing number of deaths from tainted booze
- Critics say the ban targets poor people, and only benefits bootleggers and police officers who take bribes
An Indian politician says dozens of men who died recently from drinking moonshine had only themselves to blame, as outrage grows over the impact of an alcohol ban that has created an underground market risking the lives of the poor.
The harsh words of Nitish Kumar, chief minister of Bihar, where alcohol is forbidden, came mere hours after the labourers died having drunk illegal liquor. “Know that if you drink, you will die,” he said.
Seventy deaths is the figure opposition leaders have cited, but critics say it could rise to around 100, with some of the drinkers critically ill in hospital.
But since then, with hundreds of Bihar men dead – women tend not to drink because of taboos – and others blind from drinking what is basically poison, prohibition has become more than a little controversial. It is not common, with just three other Indian states doing the same – Gujarat, Nagaland and Mizoram, the last two having small populations.
In Bihar, Kumar has become increasingly unyielding in the face of rising criticism, his policy seen by many as a failure that penalises the poor.
The rich can buy properly made alcohol from other states and find places to enjoy it without being caught. The poor turn to moonshine and every few weeks a group of men in Bihar die from drinking it. When the death toll is lower, few pay the situation much attention – society has become accustomed to it.
But last week in the city of Chhapra, over a few days, 70 lost their lives. That figure – the highest since Bihar’s prohibition began – triggered controversy amid images of impoverished women in threadbare saris sitting outside their huts wailing for their menfolk.
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There were many tragic tales in local media, including that of a widow called Phulmati Devi. She lost her two sons, Kamlesh, 40, and Suraj, 25, who had drunk the illegal booze. They had been supporting her financially.
In the state assembly, when angry opposition legislators confronted Kumar, he shocked many by lashing out at the dead, calling them drunkards.
He wagged his finger, said those who drink should know they will die, and denied families any compensation.
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Bihar’s jails are packed with 370,000 people, overwhelmingly the poorest in society. The courts are so clogged with bail applications that people have to wait months or even a year before their cases are heard.
The Supreme Court has complained about alcohol-related cases blocking the legal system. In February a court official sarcastically asked if the Bihar government had thought in advance about this consequence of its prohibition policy.
Kumar seems to be ignoring much of the criticism. Late last year he made 800,000 government employees take a pledge agreeing to do without liquor for the rest of their lives.
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Opponents of the ban say the only people who benefit from it are bootleggers and police who take bribes not to report anyone found drinking. Furthermore, prohibition does not seem to have actually stopped people enjoying alcohol.
And the liquor ‘mafia’ has learned to be more creative. Despite police using drones, helicopters, and motorboats, moonshine is smuggled in from other states in ambulances, coffins and oil tankers.
“Usually the police are in cahoots with the mafia because they take a big fat cut from them as bribes, so both sides are happy,” said Ritu Priya, chair of an NGO called Ek Kiran Aroh (A Ray of Hope).
“The tankers come in from Uttar Pradesh [a neighbouring state] and the alcohol is transferred into small plastic pouches to be dropped off at different locations,” a village council head, Ajit Singh, told the Indian Express.
An editorial in the Times of India criticised Kumar for being stubborn in the face of all the evidence. “Far from being chastened, he has made it a prestige issue.”
Another example of the ban’s failure is the poor conviction rate, judging by the state government’s own statistics. By October this year police had arrested around 450,000 people, with 140,000 of them tried. Of these, only 1,300 were convicted.
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The latest deaths reverberated in New Delhi, hundreds of miles from Bihar, with MPs from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party urging the federal government to step in and overturn Kumar’s booze ban.
Nevertheless, Priya says women she meets still support prohibition – but with caveats.
“This isn’t the ban they wanted. You can still get alcohol in every house in Bihar,” she said. “The point is to choke the supply totally so that no one dies. But that has failed.”
