Bihar's Prohibition Dilemma: A Battle Against Illegal Alcohol Sales

Wed Nov 19 2025 04:28:52 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

Despite enforcing a ban on alcohol sales for nearly a decade, Bihar, India's poorest state, faces challenges in curbing illegal liquor production and consumption. This article explores the complexities of the prohibition policy and its implications on local communities.

While Bihar's prohibition law aims to curb addiction and domestic violence, illegal alcohol trade thrives due to gaps in enforcement and geographical challenges. Locals share their experiences, revealing the continuing struggle between policy intentions and the reality of a black market in liquor.

Nine years after imposing a statewide alcohol ban to curb addiction, domestic violence, and financial ruin among its poorest families, Bihar - India's poorest state - still struggles to gauge the policy's effectiveness.

The gaps in implementation became glaring as the BBC shadowed Bihar officials in a misty October morning raid on bootleggers. Armed excise officers, with a sniffer dog, sped across the Ganges on a boat to raid an illegal distillery.

On reaching the outskirts of the capital, Patna, the team found a ramshackle setup of a dozen metal drums - part of a makeshift apparatus fermenting jaggery, a type of cane sugar, into country liquor. Vapour rose from the drums embedded in the riverside mud, the surfaces still warm. The officers said the site was active minutes earlier, but the alcohol-makers had fled by the time they arrived.

They often get tipped off before a raid, an officer who didn't wish to be named said. Despite these enforcement gaps, alcohol prohibition remains firmly in place in Bihar.

Passed in 2016 by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar after persistent demands from women's groups, the law was among the factors that helped his Janata Dal (United) - Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance clinch a decisive state election victory earlier this month.

State officials tout the policy's success by pointing to big numbers: since the law took effect, 1.1 million cases have been registered and 650,000 people convicted for violations. But the devil lies in the detail. More than 99% of these convictions are for consumption, rather than production, selling, or transport of illicit liquor. Moreover, alcohol remains widely available in the black market in Bihar.

In the six weeks leading to the recently held election, illicit alcohol worth more than 522 million rupees ($6.26 million, £4.96 million) was seized from across the state.

Local police, who did not want to come on record, say it is a combination of several factors - including staff shortages, increasingly sophisticated smuggling methods and possible collusion between liquor makers and authorities.

Despite the challenges, many women in Bihar - who still carry deep scars from their husbands' alcohol abuse - want the ban to continue. Lalmunni Devi, who lost her husband after he consumed toxic liquor in 2022, expressed her hope that no one else would suffer the same fate. Others echoed her feelings, attributing their unfortunate experiences to pervasive alcohol abuse.

Bihar's geography, with borders to states that allow alcohol, further complicates enforcement efforts. Even with its obstacles, the debate continues on whether prohibition in Bihar is a successful social reform or an ineffective policy unable to prevent the thriving illicit alcohol market.