Village with daily wine intake of 2.4 qntl now ‘dry’

Lariapalli, a small tribal village in Sambalpur district, which once had an addiction rate of 90 per cent, today received a national award for outstanding services in the field of Prevention of Alcoholism and Substance (Drug) Abuse, 2018.  Over the last three years, this Gram Panchayat that used to consume 2.4 quintals of alcohol per day now consumes nil.

Owing to persistent efforts in community mobilisation, awareness drives and behavioural training workshops organised and led by the Art of Living volunteers under the leadership of its director Bhola Nath, with the support of the head of the Gram Panchayat Shukru Kujur and the Odisha Government, large scale attitudinal shifts in the village have been brought.

In a letter recommending this Gram Panchayat for the National Awards, the Odisha Government detailed the innovative approach that helped make the area completely addiction-free, and said it was the emphasis on bringing behavioural changes through the means of Yoga, Pranayama and meditation with the help of the Art of Living’s Vyakti Vikas Kendra, making it a truly community driven programme that led to the success.

Uniquely, before starting off with the community mobilisation drive, a key aspect of the transformation process, Bhola Nath also led 50 village locals, including Sarpanch of Lariapalli, Shukri Kujur through a transformative community empowerment workshop called the Youth Leadership Training Programme. After going through the programme, Kujur passionately got involved in making the village addiction -free.

 The Art of Living conducted ethical and motivational training of these volunteers to become development agents for bringing about positive attitudinal change in the tribal population.

The extent of alcohol consumption was 2.40 quintal/day in the nine revenue villages and three hamlets of the Lariapalli GP according to the Excise Department information. Now it has reduced to zero.

There were six excise cases of illicit selling of country liquor in the year 2016-17, which have come down to three cases in 2017-18 and so far nil during this year.

After the liquor shops being shut down, those running illicit liquor businesses and those working there have been brought into work under MGNREGS engagement, particularly in developing water harvest structures and irrigation for agriculture, including horticultural plantations, gainfully employing them.

Through door-to-door survey, the volunteers continue to identify regular addicts and work towards bringing them out of the addictions by providing them social engagement and spiritual tools to manage their addictions.

With awareness drives, and the Art of Living’s behavioral change programmes like Youth Leadership Training Programme, the GP managed to curb the demand side, and imposed heavy fines on people caught selling alcohol to curb the supply side of the industry.