THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: One in every four Malayali men consumes alcohol, the latest round of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-6) has revealed, while also highlighting an uptick in consumption among the male population.
As per the survey report for 2023-24, alcohol consumption among men in Kerala showed a relative rise of 14% from four years ago in 2019-20, when the last NFHS report came out.
The NFHS-6 report released last week showed that 22.7% of Kerala men aged 15 and above consume alcohol, up from 19.9% in 2019-20. The national average was 18.9%, marginally up from 18.7% in the previous round. Liquor consumption among women in Kerala remained negligible at 0.3%, but was still marginally up from 0.2% in 2019-20. Among states and UTs, Arunachal Pradesh topped at 50.5%, followed by Telangana at 43.9%. Kerala was in the 19th position.
The latest report reveals a reversal of the declining trend seen since 2005-06. Male alcohol consumption, which stood at 45% in 2005-06, had fallen to 37% in 2015-16. Both the surveys were done in the 15-49 age group. Since the fifth round, the survey is being conducted in the 15-plus age group with no upper cap.
Meanwhile, there was a slight drop in rural-urban gap among drinkers, with the latest round revealing that 23.7% of rural men and 21.5% of urban men consume alcohol. In the previous survey, the numbers were 21% and 18.7%, respectively.
The survey finding does not seem to align with sales data from Kerala State Beverages Corporation (Bevco). In 2023-24, Bevco sold 3.30 crore cases — one case is nine litres — of liquor, marginally lower than the 3.35 crore cases sold in 2019-20. This comes to 29.7 crore litres of alcohol sales in 2023-24.
Gross sales revenue, however, increased from Rs 14,708 crore in 2019-20 to Rs 19,089 crore in 2023-24, owing to price revisions.