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AN ALCOHOL BAN imposed in the Indian state of Bihar was supposed to clean up public life.
But it has had the unintended effect of deterring worshippers from temples, where liquor is the traditional offering.
Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar this week fulfilled an election pledge to introduce prohibition – a move popular among women voters in the poverty-stricken eastern state who were sick of seeing the family income blown on booze.
But it has proved less popular in the state’s many Hindu temples, which have suffered a sharp drop in worshipper numbers after alcohol shops were forced to shut.
Anant Marathe, a priest in Gaya district’s Bhairav Sthan temple, said the number of visitors had fallen by around 70%.
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“As the tradition goes, the devotees offer alcohol to the deity,” he told AFP by phone.
“They pour some of it on the idol and take the rest of it home or distribute it among other devotees.”
Offerings are often given on special occasions such as marriages or religious festivals, although some particularly devout worshippers give them on a daily basis.
“I haven’t visited the temple this week because I can’t get liquor to offer,” devotee Promodh Kumar told AFP, calling on the government to relax the ban to allow alcohol to be bought for religious purposes.
But Satyendra Kumar Sinha, an excise officer, said the government had no plans to make any such concessions.
“We will not allow liquor sales or consumption for any purpose. The devotees can offer anything except the banned item,” Sinha told AFP.
This law will do nothing to stop violent people being violent. It will simply take the onus off the police to sort it out, now abused men and women will be told its their fault for not doing the adequate checks in the first place.
Seems a good idea, but I’d be very worried about all the privacy of information issues. If someone applied to gain access to information held another person’s file, what proof would the have to give to confirm that they are in a relationship with that first person? What structures would be in place to avoid misuse by marketing / profiling agencies…
Many people know that their partners are violent long before they raise a hand to them , i know some never leave even when given the oppurtunity arises.
I don’t think This law will change anything
I think the main problem here is that the vast majority of the perpetrators of domestic violence never make it to the courts, never mind acquire a conviction for it.
I hate the trend of naming laws after victims. It encourages the passing of bad laws (I’m not talking about this one specifically) by appealing to emotion over reason.
If some one hits you or slaps you once they will more than likely do it again, so there is no need for this law just people need to wise up and realise that if it happens once its time to get out just leve, dont ask why, dont listen to the made up excuses, just run . This law is just another way of invading privacy, anyone think what may happen in the event of a wrongful conviction, because this happens too.
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