Liquor Ban in Kerala-a boon or a curse?

Recently Govt of Kerala (a Southern state in India) introduced a new law for banning liquor in the state by shutting down bars and beverage outlets in sequential stages. Govt prompted to this decision was however due to the excess consumption of the liquor (than the national average) by the Malayalis (People of Kerala are generally called as 'Malayalis') and this decision was welcomed by various religious leaders. As part of this, 418 liquor bars (owned by different private owners) have been shut down by the Kerala Govt and also started closing down 10 Govt owned Beverage outlets  (where packed liquor bottles are sold officially in retail prices) each in every month. And remaining 307 bars are also given official notice to shut down which ultimately got a court injunction until reviewing the case thoroughly. If this remaining 307 bars are also shut down, then the supply of liquor in Kerala will be limited to only executive bars and five star hotels which however are very less in number.

Failed attempts from the West

Kerala is not the first state or province which impose liquor ban. Various countries initially implemented the ban and later got failed due to the extreme loss of revenue. Liquor ban was a herculean flop in many countries including Russia (during 1985-1987), USA (during 1920-1933) and other western countries. In Russia, prices of vodka and beer had been doubled or tripled, while supply was decreased. Besides, Gorbachev himself conducted many awareness programs for alcohol ban. People who were caught drunk at work or in public were even prosecuted. Finally they revoked their decision of liquor ban because of huge revenue loss (around 100 billion rubles in Russia). After revoking, even until recently, Beer was considered as soft drink in Russia and was made available in super markets.

No liquor ban even in Vatican!!!!

Many Christian priests in Kerala have supported the decision of Kerala Govt's liquor ban. I don't understand what can be the biggest motivation for these religious leaders to comment on liquor ban. since the biggest irony is, there has no liquor ban ever introduced even in the Pope's sacred place of Vatican till now nor did any Pope request for this ban. May be because they might know this is not a feasible option.

Neither the Pope has given any message on the significance of liquor ban nor given any timelines on the implementation of liquor bans in any christian majority countries/regions. If liquor is to be banned, then wine which is distributing during the holy mass also has to be stopped though the latter is not using commercially. But this will hurt religious sentiments.

Reasons---for nothing??
Coming back to Kerala; Govt of Kerala is shutting down these bars citing poor qualities (in terms of infrastructure, liquor quality etc) and some stupid reasons. 

If the term "quality" was given supreme preference, then all govt roads, govt schools, govt hospitals, govt resorts, govt offices and organizations in Kerala should have been banned first, before closing liquor bars. Their next point was; male population (who works for daily wages) is spending almost half of their earnings clearly for alcohol consumption and it has become an addiction to those men who fall in that category. So if addiction is the second key word they are using, then "beauty" is an addiction for women. Every woman wants to be heard as beautiful or gorgeous or fabulous or any adjectives of that sort. An average urban woman of India squeezes almost 40-45% of men's earnings in their lifetime. So in that manner, can we ban the entire cosmetic industry?? Come on.... it is a 1.2 billion USD (7500 crore Indian Rupees) industry in India and expanding upto 3.8 billion by 2020 (Kerala of course can own at least 6-8% of this amount). 

Impact on Tourism

Kerala is a tourism state and is heavily dependent on tourism for its revenues which generated 260 billion INR (approx $4.5 billion) in 2013, growing at a rate of 13.31%. Kerala is named as one of the ten paradises of the world by National Geographic Traveler. Its unique culture and traditions, coupled with its varied demography, have made Kerala one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Around 60% of the tourists visiting Kerala every year are international tourists, basically from Russia, UK, Germany, France, USA etc. where in which liquor is part of their culture. The second reason why they choose Kerala is because of its low cost (mainly for stay, travel, food and liquor etc) And clearly not all tourists depend on five star hotels for liquor and so the liquor ban will affect the number of incoming tourists from next year onwards.

Rehabilitation of Bar owners and direct/indirect workers

We talked about negative impact on Kerala Govt, to the common people (consumers) etc. But lets see what is the situation of bar owners and their employees? How do they live afterwards?? Every bar owners have taken huge money from the banks as loans/mortgages for starting and then continuing this business. Around 30000 people are working as direct or indirect workers in different bars of Kerala. Govt has not clarified any measures whatsoever on the rehabilitation of either the bar owners or on these workers. By ignoring 30000 people means, it is straight-forwardly 30000 families will go income-less which will have serious social issues, that ultimately create severe social/communal imbalance in the society.

Economics--Liquor of black market

"Limiting the supply may not stop/curb the demand, it will find alternate sources". This is economics principle. If the doors of official or authorized sources close, then this will pave way for the black market people to brew their own beer and alcohol. This will create huge loss on one side for the govt. and there could be chances of many liquor/hooch tragedies in the coming years (because of alcohol poisoning or consuming spurious alcohols) on the other side. This will further isolate many more families into destitution basically by killing income generators of the family.

Verdict

I am not saying banning liquor is a bad decision. But the way the Govt have approached the problem was mere foolishness. Don't know whether any back-door politics is played behind this decision, but a state heavily dependent on tourism and liquor revenues is going to face a serious economic crisis in the years ahead, besides other social issues. So in short as of now, liquor ban is not contributing any positive aspect at least in the recent upcoming years.