Copyright 2001 FT Asia Africa Intelligence Wire All rights reserved
Copyright 2001 The Hindu. THE HINDU

September 3, 2001

LENGTH: 1382 words

HEADLINE: A spirited business, but

BODY:

Man's relationship with alcohol is as old as history, as old as
Nature. There are few memories more delightful or more graceful than
elephants drunk on Mahua flowers. Or, the Mahua intoxicated bears of
Orissa, capering in blissful oblivion. They turn into the most benign
and vulnerable of species and the Forest Department has to work
overtime to protect them from humans. To get back to the elephants,
in the forests of Karnataka they are known to go snooping around
quite inculpably for tapped toddy awaiting fermentation. Every single
tribal society traditionally had a balanced and beautiful
relationship with spirituous stimulants. It helped build fraternity,
community and celebrate the joy of life.

Somewhere down time and evolution the scenario changed somewhat. The
drinker now likes to see alcohol as a solution to problems. For some
others the "wine shops" have become a cash cow. For the rest it is
nothing but a huge nuisance. There are an increasing number of
newspaper reports about communities and institutions objecting to
liquor shops and their locations. The complaints range from just
being a nuisance to security risks.

The printed pages of the Tamil Nadu Prohibition Act stipulates that
"No shop shall be established in Municipal Corporations and
Municipalities within a distance of 50 metres and in other areas 100
metres from any place of worship or educational institution: Provided
that the distance restriction shall not apply in areas designated as
"Commercial" or "Industrial" by the Development or Town Planning
Authorities". It further requires that every shop be housed in a
pucca building. "On receipt of the application, the licensing
authority shall satisfy himself in general after due enquiry that the
local needs to justify the grant of the licence and that public
interest shall not suffer by the grant of the licence applied for and
that the privilege is not likely to be misused."

According to number telephonically ascertained from the Office of the
Directorate of Excise, there are 870 IMFL (Indian Made Foreign
Liquor) retail-vending shops in Chennai. Newspapers report an
addition of another 90 over the last two weeks. Whether every wine
shop, which functions as a "bar-attached" facility, actually has a
special licence to do that, only the licensing authority and the
enforcing officers of the Excise Department and the Police will ever
know. Irrespective, when totalled, that adds to a handsome number
that makes it extremely convenient for us to stop on the way home or
even to work to gulp down some liquor to get a quick high.

Along the very socially creamy and thickly peopled four-kilometre
drive that I make twice a day, every day, from Alwarpet to Adyar I
have a choice of nine wine shops, all of them except two, with
functioning bars!

The bare Act also guarantees that "anyone found intoxicated in public
places and those who are not permitted to consume alcohol by law
found intoxicated in any private place shall be punished with
imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months or with a
fine which may extend to one thousand Rupees". All of Chennai can
mock that one!

Business in a wine shop begins as soon as it opens which usually is
rather early in the morning and it continues at an increasing pace
till the shutters are reluctantly downed late in the night. With
single-minded devotion, drinkers stop by to gulp from flimsy white
plastic cups. Some buy sachets of water in a pretence of diluting it.
The more posh ones on motorcycles seek anonymity in pretending to
themselves that they are visiting the pharmacy to pick up stuff for
the family. Usually they are the variety that choke on their drinks.
The less said about the drinkers who come by car the better. The
friendly neighbourhood sundal vendor makes music on his iron kadai
-"Come unto me all ye drunks!"

The already narrow roads get further bottlenecked. White plastic cups
litter the areas and roll away in the wind. Streets are instantly
converted into urinals. Vehicles with inebriated drivers weave into
the traffic hazardously. Drunken pedestrians wobble precariously in
and out of the traffic. Others choose deep comatose sleep often in
the comforts of their own vomit on the roadsides. So much for the act
and its rhetoric about being found intoxicated in public places.

For reasons of maximising sales, the wine shops are being
strategically located at points of highest traffic and in areas,
which are (socio-economically) vulnerable and volatile.

The busy R. A. Puram junction had a distribution point for gas
cylinders, which had the awkward habit of bursting. People objected
and it was moved out. Instead it has become a wine shop, complete
with the statutory warning that politely informs you that you are
going to hell. Same difference, and we do not even realise it.
Earlier it was an explosive problem, now it is an implosive one!

Wine shops are a compelling business proposition for its key
stakeholders. For the licence, applications are invited from
respectable citizens for a fee of Rs.500 and a security deposit of
Rs.1,00,000 - a pittance compared to the bonanza the shop will rake
in. Being a licensed and restricted commodity getting a licence is,
believe me, a "privilege", and privileges usually cost. The word is
(and, of course, we have no proof or evidence whatsoever) that there
is necessarily a great deal of underhand dealings with much exchange
of favours, which hugely benefit the powers that be.

For the Government, sale of alcohol (like its narcotic cousin
tobacco) brings in huge amounts of much needed revenue. So everyone
benefits except the drinker and the public at large who between them
pay for all the costs and much, much more.

Wine shops continue to thrive. It is not just a lucrative business;
we heavily subsidise it! It does not take any responsibility for any
of the problems caused. Parking is not provided and the costs of
illegal parking are borne by the community.

Toilets are not provided and our locality becomes a urinal. The
sellers of alcohol take no responsibility for the alcohol related
traffic accidents, injuries and deaths, not to mention other social
problems. They internalise the profits and externalise the costs to
us. True, people need to make money but at what cost and, more
importantly, at whose cost. Why should we continuously allow our
businesses, whether they are large industries or small wine shops, to
pass on their costs to the community while they dearly hold on to the
unearned profits?

The solution to the problem does not lie in banning alcohol or
closing down the wine shops or, worse, in taking a moralistic stand
against drinking. To address the problem we need to find out why
people are drinking, and drinking hard at that, jeopardising their
health, others lives, their livelihoods and their homes.

They are obviously not doing it for fun and enjoyment. Wine shops are
some of the most un-fun places to be in. Anyone who has hung around
in our local wine shops knows that there can be no discourse,
sharing, fraternity, or fun (as in some traditional pubs and watering
holes) when one is indulging in "hit and run" drinking: good old
fashioned shooting back of liquor, trying to get as high as fast as
possible at the lowest cost! If this is a symptom of a rather serious
malaise, then the root causes need to be addressed to resolve the
problem. The idea is not to close off the tap (and send it
underground!) but to find out why the tap is being opened in the
first place.

Maybe as a society we need to be allowed to get comfortable with
alcohol so that we can relax with it and not treat it as an indecent
indulgence to be done in secret and in the extreme. We need to demand
dignified spaces that communities can live with, where people can see
a glass of beer or whatever as a cup that actually cheers, promoting
discourse, sharing and a sense of enjoyment, while providing
reasonable revenue and profits to government and enterprise. We need
to make sure that profits are made fairly and not at the cost of
society.

Who knows, the public discourse promoted by convivial drinking spaces
may even throw up some solutions and come up with other more sane
ways for the Government to earn revenue?

ELIZABETH ROY

LOAD-DATE: September 4, 2001

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