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An alcoholic freak, theweek.in |
During India's independence struggle against the British rule, Mahatma Gandhiji campaigned against the consumption of alcohol and considered it as a major social evil that would destroy the welfare of the society. He urged a total ban on drinking. When the Constitutional Committee wrote the Indian constitution, to accommodate Gandhiji's view on alcoholism and a powerful anti-alcohol lobby, they included a section into the Constitution declaring its intention to enforce prohibition across India. But today, state governments across the country are violating this edict with impunity, going back on the assurance given to that grand old man. As for Tamil Nadu, the credit goes to the government headed by the DMK party to lift prohibition. In the later years, alcohol had begun to flow, causing havoc to millions of poor families. From the Himalayan states to the southern states including Kerala, liquor is available easily.
Believe it or not God's own country - Kerala has the highest per capita consumption of alcohol in the country and the sale of liquor is on the increase as days go by. What surprises the common man is this upward mobility in liquor sale continues despite the prohibitive tax on legal alcohol and many dry days. During the major festivals like Onam , the most popular one in Kerala, the liquor sale was worth more than Rs.500 crores despite a ban on the sale on festival days. The state government was unable to check on the illegal, covert sale and hoarding.
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| Kerala state God's own country facebook.com |
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| Kerala S. India God's own country irisholiday.com |
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| Liquor consumption Kerala facebook.com |
Above image: Once all three lines at the plant (brewery) become functional, officials expect the facility to produce up to 13,500 cases of liquor per day - significantly boosting the state’s own liquor production capacity. https://www.facebook.com/keralamtnie/posts/1447215077421749/
As per the survey report for 2023-24, alcohol consumption among men in Kerala showed a relative rise of 14% from four years ago in 2019-20, when the last NFHS report came out, M S Vidyanandan writes. https://www.facebook.com/keralamtnie/posts/152206595660332
Way back in 2018 the liquor outlets were provided with modern facilities like self service counters .On top of it, there was no need to stand in long lines as all the Bevco and Consumerfed outlets were going to stock up foreign-made liquor and also would install liquor vending machines attached to them. The Kerala government extended the closing time of the bars to 11.50pm. It was a great piece of news for the habitual tipplers .https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2018/04/02/bevco-kerala-fmfl-imfl-alcohol-consumption.html..................
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| thehindu.com |
When making alcohol available to the public, as ordered by the High Court, the government aims at more consumer friendly service, one Bevco official said. Why the government agency has gotten into FMFL? The reason is simple. Several foreign brands were being sold clandestinely on the black maket in the state even during the height of prohibition. Consequently, the state agency incurred loss and to make it up they took a decision to sell FMFL presumably at a competitive price. Though the import duty on the foreign liquor is 150% and the price is high, lots of people prefer foreign liquor to the India made foreign liquor. Since the price difference between FMFL and IMFL, the sale market the the latter is not affected. Bevco has a proposal to import many brand of foreign made beers to please the beer lovers. Thus God's own country has become a haven for liquor freaks.
The Toddy shanties (Commonly known as Toddy Shops), tucked into an isolated place in the midst of greenery are equally famous where you get the local brew - commonly called ''Kallu''. It is a sort of local wine with low alcohol content; non-alcoholic versions of palm sap are also available. Also called 'Toddy', in Kerala Palm Wine, Palm Toddy and Kallu are all the product of different species of palm trees like Palmyra, coconut palms etc. Only the state agency has the right to sell it through numerous licensed outlets and lots of people go for it.
According to National Institutes of Health (NIH), 1 in every 13 people in the United Kingdom is an alcoholic. In the USA, 15 per cent have been proven to be problem drinkers, 5 per cent to 10 per cent male drinkers and 3 per cent to 5 per cent female drinkers are alcohol dependent. In India, in the past one and half decades, alcohol consumption has gone up and so is the problem of alcoholism.
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