Bihar alcohol ban reduced domestic violence

Bihar's alcohol ban in 2016 prevented 24 lakh cases of daily and weekly consumption, and 21 lakh cases of intimate partner violence, according to new research published in The Lancet Regional Health Southeast Asia journal. The ban is also estimated to have prevented 18 lakh men in the state from becoming overweight or obese, it said.

In April 2016, the Bihar Prohibition and Excise Act brought about a near complete halt on the manufacture, transport, sale, and consumption of alcohol throughout the state. The overnight launch and its strict enforcement made the ban an "attractive natural experiment to estimate the true causal impacts of a strict alcohol restriction policy on health and domestic violence outcomes,' according to the authors. Data from the National Family Health Surveys-3, -4, and -5 were included in the analysis by a team of researchers, including those from The International Food Policy Research Institute, Poverty, Health and Nutrition Division, US.