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Abuse of legal substances in India includes tobacco and alcohol. These are major concern and causes of non-communicable diseases and deaths. Alcohol related deaths in India is 38.5/100000 population. WHO puts alcohol-related deaths in India to 2.6 lakh annually. Between the two substances, tobacco is still a larger killer in India than alcohol and is responsible for one million deaths annually which accounts for 17.8% of total deaths. Therefore, from the perspective of health, tobacco is a cause for more concern than alcohol nevertheless; one will have to agree that the rate of alcohol consumption constitutes a serious issue as it has more psycho-social impact. Figure shows that, alcohol consumption in India is double than that of China. In India, currently only the states of Bihar, Gujarat, Nagaland and UT of Andaman & Nicobar Island have liquor prohibition. Any government will be tempted to have some form of stringent prohibitory legislation on alcohol but, the question is, will such a step be rational given the worldwide experiences of failures of alcohol prohibition?
Promulgation of the NLTP Act 1989 and the aftermath of the Act has been widely discussed in all forms of media including now popular social media. Arbitrarily, one may not be wrong to say that 80% of participants are for lifting the present form of the Act and be replaced a rational one. Many are of the impression that total lift will be better but, as mentioned, alcohol is a legal substance and some form in legislation will have to be there. To my belief, population wanting continuation or strict form of total prohibition law is based on misconstrued concepts and not on rational understanding of the issue. I had also written a news article about ten years back on the perils of continued total prohibition therefore, I will limit myself to the current discussion on partial lifting. This write up is purely personal and does not carry the weightage of the Party to which I belong nor of the position I hold. Various opinions on alcohol by itself are paradoxical. It is accepted that, abuse of alcohol is the root cause of many evils. Rev. Increase Mather, one of the most influential puritan ministers of the late 17 century said “Alcohol is a good creature of God and that, man should partake of the gift without abusing it”. Jeffry A. Miron, an American economist, said, “Prohibition can only reduce demand if consumers exhibit respect of the Law”. The situations that NLTP Act has brought about in Nagaland are smuggling and criminalisation among participants; bootlegging and introduction of spurious alcohol; health problems arising out of the direct sequel of prohibition; additional expenditure on its enforcement while revenue is cut off. On the other hand, how much of socio-cultural; psycho-spiritual or family economic improvement has taken place following the total prohibition?
Multiple times Chief Minister and Governor, respected Dr. S. C. Jamir’s recent interview speaks volumes on how the now notorious Act came by. He was the Chief Minister of the State when the Act was promulgated. In his recent interview he said, he had told people in his public speech at that point of time that, the Act will not be successful. This indicates that the Act was not borne out of rational or scientific consideration but due to pressure from the churches and civil societies prevailing at that point of time. His message is loud and clear then and even now. I remember as a small kid in the early 70s, vaguely though, even in Wokha Town women group taking to processions with slogans like “Do not take alcohol, there is snake inside alcohol”. Incidentally this was a period of immediate post Billy Graham Crusade, and our religious sentiments were quite high at that point of time! May be these escalating sentiments broke the rationality of governance.
The aftermath of NLTP Act has practically boiled down to some undeniable situations. Due to the total prohibition on alcohol, its business has become unregulated. The law enforcement agencies have tried their level best, judged by the amount of raids and alcohol seizure that has been taking place in Nagaland time and over again. One more thing it has done is that, smugglers becoming smarter and more risk takers. Result is that availability increases at a heighten price rather than being decreased. Now there are multitudes of shops selling alcohol behind the façade of fruit juices and package water. Percentage of drinkers has also not decreased. In fact, there are indications that more youngsters are becoming drinkers, albeit occasionally due to easy availability which unfortunately are spurious in nature. Every clinical doctor will agree that there is early onset of health issues particularly liver damage due to spurious alcohol consumption. The picture is not good and, if we think that more strict laws is required to curb the menace, we might as well learn fast that we are tomfooling ourselves.
As per the district-wise factsheet of the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5) 2019-21 for Nagaland, percentage of alcohol consumption between the ages 15-49 is around 31%. This is higher than the national figure of 22.4%. Of the alcohol users, 15% drink alcohol on daily basis. According to a study by Dr. Kahuka Sema and Staff- Family Health Clinic Family, 34% of Nagas are drinkers and 80% of families have at least one member who drinks occasionally. The projected population of Nagaland for 2023 is 22,13,300 souls. It would then mean Nagaland has 6,86,123 drinkers of which 1,02,918 are habitual daily drinkers. This is the magnitude of alcohol problem in Nagaland. If someone tells me, that the number of drinkers in Nagaland would escalate if total prohibition is lifted, I for one wouldn’t be convinced. The situation calls for a better legislation with tobacco type of control mechanism but not total prohibition. Also, better spiritual approach but not creating a barrier between alcohol and the populace will surely help.
Apart from alcohol the other legal substance of health concern as mentioned is tobacco. Tobacco use is as universal as alcohol in fact, more! However, rather than total prohibition, tobacco use is regulated under “Cigarettes and other Tobacco Product Act -2003” (COTPA-2003), a Central control law that is common to all the states. This uniformity of law is important reason for its success. Each state within the Union of India has authority to legislate on legal substances like tobacco and alcohol but, if the neighbouring state does not have a similar laws (like Assam for us), it results in what is known as “Patchwork of Law” due to differences in legality of alcohol sale and consumption. This by itself is another disadvantage and does help in effectiveness of the law. In case of tobacco, people of Nagaland going to Assam will be subjected to the same tobacco law and vice versa. This uniformity results in better application of law.
Earlier, tobacco use was unrestricted. Even commercial flights had its rear section dedicated to smokers. All hotel rooms literally had stench of cigarette buds. Smokers were free to smoke inside airports, Railways and bus terminals. No smoking signs were not very common. All these are things of the past, thanks to COTPA-2003 and the multipronged efforts of Health Department and other associate departments like Law enforcement, Education, etc.
Currently, 43.3% of the population of Nagaland are tobacco users. This is a reduction from the previous record of 56.8% in 2010 (Global Adult Tobacco Surveys 2010 & 2016). A laudable achievement in just five years of control effort. Still, it is higher than the national figure of 28.6% and more needs to be done. Importantly, 471 educational institutions, 33 Villages and 270 health establishments and offices in Nagaland have been declared as tobacco free areas in Nagaland (Source Dept. of Health and Family Welfare). COTPA-2003 deals only with focal areas namely: Prohibition of smoking in public places; Prohibition of advertisement of products; Prohibition of sales to and by minors; Prohibition of sales within 100 yards radius of educational institutions and Health awareness, messages and health pictorials on packages. Would COTPA be effective if the Act entailed a total prohibition on tobacco? It is an open-ended question but, dwelling on keys areas of concern is achieving the desired results though the ultimate goal may be long way to go. Similarly, Nagaland liquor Act would have surely done far better if it had dwelt on similar key areas of concern.
I do believe that, at the creation of the universe, God gave mankind the choice to choose good from bad which he had purposefully placed. Adam and Eve had that choice and they failed. Similarly, in life we pass through so many such choices not just alcohol or tobacco. Even in the afterlife omnipotent God has placed two gates, heaven or hell. The choice is individual to make! Down to practicality, let the Government talk about good governance the way it sees best for its people and let the Church talk about religious or spiritual guidance of its congregation that will lead its members to the better “H” in the afterlife. Let rationality prevail. God Bless Nagaland.
Dr. Chumben Murry
Ex. Minister: Kohima
chumbenmurry@rediffmail.com