School & college kids among couriers for bootleggers

In 2016, the Bihar government banned the manufacture, transport, sale and consumption of alcohol in state. Since then, the state's liquor policy has been a contentious issue. Though, illegal, alcohol remains widely available in Bihar. Talking to lawyers who fight the bail cases provides some insight into the illegal trade in alcohol.

"Alcohol is available everywhere, but mostly poor people are used as couriers for this trade and it is they who get caught," said a lawyer in Muzaffarpur district court on condition of anonymity. "Many times, people who are caught are not known to the policemen and fail to secure safe passage. Otherwise, police know everything, and they are also one of the stakeholders of this trade," the lawyer asserted.

"Now, women and even schoolgirls and college students are involved in the trade. It's easy money for everyone. We have bailed them out, and of course, I can't reveal the names," continued another lawyer in the same chamber. This trade is worth thousands of crores, they estimated.

"It runs like a parallel economy starting at the village-level. In the initial years, strongmen from villages, mostly with political clout, sought protection from local police stations. Soon, police realised the business potential, and then a structure was created starting from the bottom and going up to the top of the leadership and bureaucracy. While the policy was announced in haste, the implementation part was not well thought through and as a result what was a free market for alcohol has now become the monopoly of a few. Elections get funded by this money. Land rates all over the state are skyrocketing because the surplus money is used to create immovable assets or fund other businesses," the lawyers said.

When asked what kind of people they have bailed out, the answer was an unending list that included doctors, local politicians, professors, lawyers, school kids and so on.

Bihar is the poorest state in the country, with the lowest per capita income, and it figures at the bottom of most social, economic, health and education indicators. In 2015-2016, the financial year just preceding the liquor ban, Bihar govt earned Rs 3,142 crore in excise, primarily liquor revenue. This was 12.3% of the state's own tax revenue of Rs 25,449 crore. After implementation of the policy, the revenue dropped to Rs 30 crore the next year, and it has been zero since then.

While liquor is freely available in the state, people, are now paying much more for it. Local vendors are losing money while ordinary people pay nearly two times the price of the same liquor brand in Uttar Pradesh.

The comparison with Uttar Pradesh shows that in 2016-17, the year when the ban was imposed in Bihar, the neighbouring state's excise revenue was Rs 14,274 crore, which got a boost of around Rs 3,000 crore in the next year. Since then, it has seen a massive rise. In 2023-24, Uttar Pradesh earned Rs 45,571 crore in excise revenue. Of course, not all of this rise can be attributed to Bihar alone.

While prohibition may have hit the exchequer as well as individual purses hard, those who favour the ban say that while there is no doubt that liquor is available freely, people are now more cautious. If they indulge in domestic violence after getting drunk, their chance of getting arrested is higher.

Reports have suggested that many women voters favour the ban. The ban has also reduced drunken brawls at public places, most admit.

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