Kerala, the State with the highest per capita consumption of alcohol, is planning to raise the legal age for drinking to 21.

Bill moved

Alarmed by how teenagers are taking to the bottle, the Government on Monday moved a Bill in the State Assembly seeking to raise the minimum drinking age by three years. The Bill prohibits underage people from drinking, buying or carrying liquor. It also bans liquor shops and bars from selling them alcohol.

But how the authorities can enforce this is anybody’s guess.

Long, disciplined lines outside Government-owned liquor shops are a daily reality here. In Kerala, the social taboo associated with drinking has faded and the older generation’s moral influence has waned. As a result, the age at which youngsters begin to drink alcohol has also been coming down. Piloting the Bill in the Assembly, Excise Minister K. Babu pointed out that 16 per cent of the country’s liquor sales takes place in Kerala. At 8.3 litres, Kerala tops in annual alcohol consumption per capita, edging Punjab aside.

The State has made it mandatory for liquor outlets to get the consent of local self-Government bodies before they set up shop. While some see this as a boost to local panchayats, anti-liquor campaigners say it has only helped decentralise corruption, with many panchayat functionaries now on the payrolls of bar owners.

Kerala has always had a drink problem. In the past, coconut toddy was a way of life for the working class in the coconut-rich State. But, with the spread of foreign liquor (IMFL) consumption in the wake of the ban on arrack in the late 1990s, the love of the bottle grew by leaps and bounds. The turnover of the state-owned Beverages Corporation (Bevco) has consistently registered double-digit increase year after year over the past decade. Bevco, the State monopoly in liquor trade, sold liquor valued at Rs 8,840 crore in 2012-13. It is one of the top revenue-earners for the Kerala Government.

Now, how is the new law going to help? “It’s absolutely a sham,” says T.J. Antony, Secretary of the Temperance Commission of the highly-influential Kerala Catholic Bishops Council (KCBC). “Without a mechanism in place to enforce it, the age bar wouldn’t work.” He wondered how the liquor outlets would verify their customers’ age.

“Instead,” Father Antony told Business Line , “the Government should have taken steps to cut availability of liquor.” For instance, had it implemented the Centre’s directive to remove liquor shops along the national highways passing through the State, consumption would have come down at least by a quarter.

> basheer.kpm@thehindu.co.in

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