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CHAPTER XII, 
Consumption of Drink. 
We now proceed to consider the possibility of making the work- 
er’s earnings more effective by diverting his expenditure into more pro- 
fitable channels. Here it is necessary to guard against too easy an assump- 
tion that the worker’s money can be better spent by some other 
person. But there are two items of expenditure in connection with 
which unprejudiced observers would agree that protection is requir- 
ed.” By far the more important of these is the expenditure involved in 
the liquidation of and payment of interest on debt, and this raises questions 
of importance and difficulty which must be reserved for another chapter. 
The other item is the expenditure on drink. The consumption of drink, 
and particularly of spirituous liquors, may be said to be a feature of the 
majority of industrial areas and has created considerable havos in some 
of them. It is not possible to give accurate figures of expenditure under 
this head, because the worker who drinks is in many cases naturally 
reluctant to give information regarding his consumption or even to admit 
that he is not a total abstainer. For this reason the results yielded by 
family budget enquiries are certainly under-estimates, even though nearly 
all show a substantial amount. Various influences have recently been at 
work to reduce consumption. The drinking of intoxicating liquor is 
repugnant alike to the religious beliefs and the social opinions of many per- 
sons in India, and there is a large section of public opinion in favour of the 
prohibition of its manufacture and sale. On the opposite side there are 
the arguments based on the impossibility, especially in India, of prevent- 
ing wholesale illicit manufacture, and on both the rightness and 
the wisdom of coercing people to abstain. In this report we are 
dealing with only a small section of the population, and it is no part of our 
function to attempt to indicate a national policy on the subject. But 
there can be no doubt that a reduction in the consumption of liquor would 
increase the welfare and efficiency of the industrial workers. 
IN 
Restrictions on Sale. 
It is possible, and in our opinion desirable, that efforts should be 
made in all industrial centres to reduce the number of drink shops and to 
restrict the hours during which liquor may be sold. We suggest thatin 
all large cities and industrial areas a general policy should be adopted of 
restricting the facilities for the sale of liquor. The areas selected should 
be sufficiently wide to ensure the policy of restriction being effective. The 
number of drink shops should be reduced and the hours of opening should 
be limited to certain hours which should in no case include any part of the 
forenoon. Outside the stated hours, the sale of liquor should be pro- 
hibited. We note with interest that in some areas of the United 
Provinces spirituous liquor may be supplied only in sealed bottles, a 
rule which, according to the memorandum furnished to us by the local 
Government, has resulted in reduced consumption. We recommend 
that the possibility of a wide extension of the svstem be examined,