The Hindu : National : Catching them young

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Wednesday, Jun 29, 2005

National

National

Catching them young

K. Venkiteswaran

In Kerala, an association of hotels that sell liquor offers new sops to their customers, in the form of educational aids to their children.

LOADED MESSAGE: To school, with a new set of bags, PHOTO: BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

KOCHI: By all appearances, it is altruism in full flow in Kerala. In the State with the highest per capita consumption of liquor, which also has the distinction of being the most literate in the country, the dispensers of the brew, represented by the Kerala Bar Hotels Association here, organised a function where children of their regular customers were supplied with school notebooks, school bags and umbrellas — free of cost.

A State Minister, a Member of Parliament, an MLA and a film star graced the occasion on Sunday. Some 2,000 schoolchildren benefited.

Informed sources in the association say this is the tenth year they have done it. They say that in the past it was being done on a low key, without seeking publicity.

One of the organisers equated the gesture with the free supply of "touchings" (as the pickles provided free of cost along with liquor in bars in central Kerala are referred to in local parlance). He felt that such gestures are essential to retain customer loyalty.

The trade in "Indian made foreign liquor" experienced a new high in the State after arrack was banned here in 1996. According to available data, the per person consumption of liquor in Kerala is 8.3 litres — which is several times the national average. Certain new liquor varieties are `test marketed' in the State, which takes to liquor, according to industry insiders, like fish to water. Liquor sales, which is in the state sector, accounts for one of the largest single contributions to the State Government's kitty.

The Kochi initiative comes close on the heels of reports from Cherthala in Alleppey district of a toddy shop providing, on the one hand, freebies to regular customers, and on the other, pencils, pens and notebooks to the children of regular drinkers. However, as word got around, a group of women and social workers forced the establishment to stop the practice.

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