The lovely tale of Liquor
during Lockdown and before
At every stage, addiction is driven by one of the most powerful, mysterious, and
vital forces of human existence. What drives addiction is longing —
a longing not just of brain, belly, or loins but finally of the heart.
Cornelius Platinga
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The use of alcohol in India for drinking purposes dates back to somewhere between 3000 and 2000 BC. An alcoholic beverage called Sura which was distilled from the rice was popular at that time in India for common men to unwind at the end of a stressful day. . Yet the first mention of Alcohol appears in Rig Veda (1700BC). It mentions intoxicants like soma and prahamana. Although the soma plant might not exist today, it was famous for delivering a euphoric high. It was also recorded in the Samhita, the medical compendium of Sushruta that he who drinks soma will not age and will be impervious to fire, poison, or weapon attack. The sweet juice of Soma was also said to help establish a connection with the gods. Such was the popularity of alcohol. Initially used for medicinal purposes, with time it evolved and became the beverage that brought life to social gatherings, and eventually consuming alcohol has become a habit for many.
With such a rich history of not just humans but also of the gods,
what is a worldwide pandemic to stop anybody from drinking?
. . .
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According to a report released by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in 2018, an average Indian drinks approximately 5.7 liters of alcohol every year. In a population of casual and excessive drinkers, with the shutters of liquor stores down, it must have been extremely difficult for “certain” people to survive lockdown. In the first two phases of lockdown, the desperation had quadrupled prices of alcohol in the Grey Market of India. Also, According to Google Trends, online searches for “how to make alcohol at home” peaked in India during the fourth week of March, which was the same when the lockdown was announced. As a consequence, a few people died drinking home-brewed liquor. People committed suicide due to alcohol withdrawal syndrome. Owing to the worsening situation and to reboot the economy, some states decided to open licensed liquor stores in the third phase of the COVID-19 Pandemic lockdown in India. This decision was the worst best decision the state governments could take. The kilometer-long queues in front of liquor stores were evidence that a pandemic can turn your life upside down yet your relationship with alcohol cannot move an inch.
The love in the hearts of those who are addicted was explicit. We might have seen addiction, we might have witnessed desperation but what happened in the month of May was madness, not just in terms of the way people pounced but also in the way the government earned. According to a report by Hindustan Times, on the first day of the third phase of Lockdown, the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh recorded a sale of over Rs 100 Crore from liquor. On the second day of the reopening of Liquor stores, Karnataka reported sales of 197 crores in a single day which was the largest ever. Eventually, the prices of Liquor were hiked to 100% to discourage people from drinking.
. . .
​
There was a special corona fee that was imposed in Delhi by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. A 70% corona fee was imposed in Delhi, yet the sales did not drop. The entire situation was a disaster for the law enforcement officers, social distancing was easily abandoned and a basic code of conduct was happily violated. Despite the chaos created, the states continued to collect revenues. Home delivery of alcohol was allowed in Maharashtra and e-tokens were sold in Delhi.
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Demand for liquor is inelastic which means that
the sale of alcohol is not much responsive to change in prices.
In general, since alcohol policy is a state subject in India, revenue from Liquor is a cash cow for state governments. In 2018 and 2019, four states collectively collected about 20,000 crores in taxes from the sale of liquor. As much as the state earns from the sale of Liquor it is undoubtedly, a threat to the Economy. Consumption of alcohol has dire health consequences. When a person consumes an alcoholic beverage, there is a rise in BAC because of which there is a gradual and progressive loss of driving ability because of an increase in reaction time, overconfidence, degraded muscle coordination, impaired concentration, and decreased auditory and visual acuity. This is known as drunken driving. (V. M. Anantha Eashwar, 2020) Drunken driving is the third biggest cause of road accidents and over speeding in India. Road accidents are not it; alcoholism causes sleep problems, heart, and liver issues. Also, it is not about an individual’s life, it ruins the lives of all people concerned.
Addiction also causes economic loss. In 2000, Vivek Benegal and his team assessed 113 patients admitted to a special de-addiction service for alcohol dependence. They found that
the average individual earned a mean of ₹1,661 but
spent ₹1,938 per month on alcohol, incurring high debt.
They also found that 95% did not work for about 14 days in a month. They concluded that it led to a loss of ₹13,823 per person per year in terms of foregone productivity. A more recent study, Health Impact and Economic Burden of Alcohol Consumption in India, led by Gaurav Jyani, concluded that alcohol-attributable deaths would lead to a loss of 258 million life-years between 2011 and 2050. The study placed the economic burden on the health system at $48.11 billion, and the societal burden (including health costs, productivity loss, and so on) at $1,867 billion. “This amounts to an average loss of 1.45% of the gross domestic product (GDP) per year to the Indian economy,” the study said. (Mint, 2020)
Setho ka Gaon
With each passing day, the ‘curtain of separation’ weighs down on the women of Afghanistan, paving the way for tyranny to thrive.
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Alumni Connect
Name: Rajat Sindhu
Batch: 2012-15
Current Field of work: Public policy, impact investing and advocacy
1. What kind of student were you while pursuing Economics at Hindu College? What were your involvements in the department and other societies?
- During college, I was a total 'sports guy'. All 3 years I led the Tennis team of the college and was part of the exciting football team of Hindu. I was so heavily involved in sports that in the final game of the season (against Stephens!) I tore my knee ligament and had to undergo a surgery to replace it. So that really worked. Apart from the college teams, I enthusiastically participated in all departmental events (sports or otherwise) and we won many great things as proud 'ECO' grads.
If you're wondering about the match. We ended up losing 4-0 to the college across the road.
2. What is it like working in Public Policy?
- Working in the policy space is unique and expansive. Almost everything we see around us is 'policy in action'; you can be working for an NGO, the government, a consultancy or an international development organisation, it all falls under the realm of public policy. Hence an early understanding of it helps a lot. As we go deeper, we often find ourselves bucketed in a sector like health, education, climate change, credit, finance, diplomacy etc - All with our own unique point of entries. I currently work for a UK based investment agency called CIFF which looks to invest in the development sector on a set of wide-ranging issues from health to climate change across multiple geographies. My role at CIFF is in the strategy and advocacy team, which essentially means i get paid to talk. I engage with various stakeholders like governments, consultancies, INGOs (UNESCO/UNICEF) to deploy, scale and sustain best practices in the sectors mentioned, from all around the globe across various geographies across India, Africa and Beijing.
3. How has pursuing Economics at Hindu College helped you in your future career?
- Economics as a subject, and more importantly as a tool is uniquely positioned at the crossroads of all of life. Whether it is managing monthly household budgets to handling complex financial data sets in the market, to understanding the contours of policy and governance. Studying economics pre-instils the basics of critical thinking, problem-solving, education and reasoning, hell even strong communication and logic skills at an early age which sets the ground for one to engage with any field deeper as you go further in your journey. Not to mention that studying at 'Hindu' has its own benefits in terms of networking, communication skills and of course a 'reputational benefit'. Economics and Hindu really is the whole package; of course assuming that you spend your time here in the 'right way'. While classes and academia have their own place, developing one's self, personality and one's perspective is perhaps the most important thing that helped me further.
4. What's your preparation related advice for your juniors after completing their graduation?
- As economic students, we naturally have a good grasp of quantitative skills and maths. However, during crunch preparation times, I paid a lot of attention to develop my comms and verbal skills. Studying a lot of literature helped me boost my comprehension skills a lot, which turned out to be heavily beneficial in the end. It gave me the necessary edge over engineering students who usually dominate competitive exams.