Bihar's dilemma

Nine years after Bihar adopted one of India's most ambitious social interventions, its prohibition law stands at a crossroads between symbolism and lived reality. What began as a moral and political project ~ to protect households from addiction, domestic violence and financial ruin - has produced a complicated legacy, one in which the goals of reform collide repeatedly with the limits of enforcement.

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The state's resolve is undeniable. Raids continue with clockwork regularity: officers crossing rivers at dawn, sniffer dogs leading them through sugarcane fields, and makeshift distilleries being torn down. Yet the same sites spring back to life within days. It is a pattern so persistent that officials themselves openly acknowledge it. When nearly all convictions under a stringent law are for consumption rather than production or trafficking, it becomes clear that the system is designed to trap the vulnerable while allowing the supply chains to regroup and adapt.