The recent tragedy in West Bengal in which 170 people died after drinking locally made hooch shows once again how vulnerable our poor are, and how poor are our mechanisms to ensure their safety.Hooch, Moonshine or Jake is the name given to illicitly distilled illegally produced alcoholic drinks that do not conform to safety standards. They are made by fermenting sugary or starchy substances, distilling them to increase the concentration of alcohol, and often adding other substances for more punch. They have been produced for generations in home-made stills or barns, often under the cover of forests and swamps, and catered to poor labourers, farmers, rikshaw-drivers and hawkers.
Outbreaks of poisoning and deaths due to bad hooch have occured in various parts of the world from time to time. Major Indian tragedies have occured in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Odisha and UP in the last 3 years, and despite the temporary reactions they elicited, the magnitude of tragedies has just got bigger.
Ethanol or ethyl-alcohol is the intoxicating agent in all alcoholic beverages. It is when unscrupulous manufacturers resort to mixing other substances such as methanol (methyl-alcohol), lye, rubbing alcohol, wood paint, paint thinner, bleach, formaldehyde, chemical fertilizers, leather and lead to the drink either as cheaper substitutes or to provide more “kick”, that they become poisonous.
Methanol, a cheaper substitute of ethanol or ethyl-alcohol, produces abdominal pain, acidosis, coma, blindness and paralysis. Treatment, if the victim is brought to medical attention in time, requires giving ethyl-alcohol to flush out the toxic methyl one, or dialysis, both of which are usually not available in small rural centres where these tragedies take place. Those who survive methanol poisoning are often crippled with blindness, paralysis and loss of livelihood.
Hooch tragedies tell much about our society; our scant health and safety standards and the deep cleft between the rich and the poor.
Bootleg country liquor comes cheap and is often the only intoxicant that the poor can afford. The hooch kingpins get more and more people, especially the earning members, hooked to expand their market. Thay also provide employment to the poor for making and selling it, develop financial clout, poliical patronage, and often become invincible lords of local rings.
Banning hooch would seem the obvious solution, but would push the poor, who have already been hooked to intoxication as succour to their struggling lives, to more expensive alternatives, thus promoting the sale of branded products. And do we expect the same law enforcers who are vulnerable to bribes and who allowed this to happen, to be different then.
The deeper question is: Why do poor people who eke out their existence, take to intoxicating drinks? Do they too need entertainment , like their well-to-do counterparts? What options do they have? Could society or governments try to provide them with healthy entertaining engagements that would keep them from drinks and drugs? A well enforced ban would only then have a chance to work!
As published in HT City (Hindustan Times) dated 18 December, 2011.
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