In sum, a de facto prohibition lasted from March 25 to (Lockdown phase 1 and 2). Therefore, the alcohol policy witnessed either a short-lasting change in some states or contemplation of change in other states. (FPJ Webdesk 2020b, 2020, 2020c Government of Kerala. Kerala Excise Department, 2020).
Some other states (e.g., Punjab, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Odisha) proposed to implement some of these measures and requested approval from the government of India but finally the changes did not ensue. Some states (e.g., Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya) tweaked the prohibition policy imposed by the Government of India by allowing “home delivery of alcohol,” “online alcohol sale,” “alcohol sale for limited hours of the day,” “alcohol prescription by a registered medical practitioner.” These measures could be implemented only for a few days and were thwarted either by the Government of India or by the legal mandate. Consequently, several states took disparate measures by making provisions for alcohol supply to nullify the prohibition. There is no national-level alcohol policy in India. There was a complete prohibition on manufacturing, transport, sale, and purchase of alcohol, implemented on the same day. Only emergency medical care and the sale of essential food and beverages were permitted. The Epidemic Diseases Act (1897) was implemented, and offices, transport, and all non-essential services were shut down. A recent national survey revealed 5.2% of India's population, an estimated 57 million people were either harmful or dependent alcohol users however, the magnitude varied widely across the states (Ambekar et al., 2019).įollowing overnight notice, on March 25, 2020, India declared a nationwide lockdown to contain the spread of SARS-CoV-2. As per the International Wines and Spirits Record (IWSR) Drinks Market Analysis, India is the ninth-largest consumer of alcohol and the second-largest consumer of spirits in the world (IWSR Drinks Market Analysis).
Both the amount and pattern would lead to adverse public health impacts. A growing trend was also seen in the proportion of people with heavy episodic drinking (WHO, 2018). More than 90% of the consumption consisted of distilled spirits. The Global Status Report on Alcohol and Health (2018) revealed that India had a per capita alcohol consumption of 5.7 L and an increasing trend observed in the last decade moreover, the trend was highest among the other South-East Asian Region (SEAR) countries. Although the use of Trends data for mental health and substance use disorders has been on the rise, suicidal behavior and the emergence of new psychoactive substances have dominated the research domains so far (Bright, Bishop, Kane, Marsh & Barratt, 2013 Gallagher et al., 2012 Mukherjee et al., 2020 Nuti et al., 2014 Yang, Tsai, Huang & Peng, 2011). Google Trends search has been predominantly used for surveillance of infectious disease epidemics. More than 98% of internet users use Google as their search engine. The latest report by the Internet & Mobile Association of India estimated 503 million internet users (more than 30% of India's population), distributed evenly between the urban and rural areas (Mishra & Chandani, 2020). India has an ever-growing number of internet users, which is second in the world. Institute of Medicine has recognized a complementary role of internet search 'Big Data' and considers it as an extension of the existing data foundations (Brownstein, Freifeld & Madoff, 2009). It provides data with temporal and geospatial patterns of relative search volumes of user-specified search terms. Google Trends is an open-source online portal of Google Inc.
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