Feature 7 March, 2010 - Bhutanese down 12.5 million litres of alcohol a year and a staggering 54 percent of the country’s total 56 percent youth population below 24 years are the main consumers.

That means of 634,982 total Bhutanese population, as stated in the population and housing census, 2005, 342,890 Bhutanese below 24 years consume alcohol, a recent study conducted for the health ministry revealed.

It is little wonder that Bhutanese youth make up the main consumers. Visit any bar along the streets of the main Thimphu town, where there’s almost one for every ten metres of sidewalk, and the customers are fresh graduates, school students or dropouts.

Save for hardware shops, almost every shop in Thimphu town, be it a grocery or a general store, sells liquor.

The health ministry study also showed that, within the Thimphu municipality boundary, are 793 thriving bars for a population of almost 80,000, 22,464 of whom are between 15 and 24 years. Considering the international age limit for consuming alcohol, there is a bar in the capital city for every 28 youth between 15 and 24 years.

Many teachers wish that that was the country’s teacher-student ratio.

A Thimphu school principal complained about the government remaining callous about bars that are allowed right next to school campuses.

“Although there is a standing law disallowing bars near schools, the government doesn’t enforce the rule,” said the principal.

Motithang school principal Karma Zangmo recalled the bitter experience of finding some of her students drunk in a bar, a few metres from the school, caught in a brawl last year.

“We had to request the bars not to sell alcohol to school students,” she said. “Parents wanted to sue the bar owners, but decided to resolve the matter internally.”

This year, fearing similar incidents, Karma Zangmo said the school had plans to conduct random checking on bars for students.

Trade officials argued that, although the law clearly forbade bars near schools and dratshangs, it failed to specify how far away they should be.

“Does it mean in terms of kilometres or metres?” regional trade director Dungtu asked.

If bars had to be kilometers away from schools, he explained that all the bars in Thimphu town would have to be rooted out. “Almost all schools in Thimphu are just a few metres from the town,” Dungtu said.

He said they were waiting to put the matter up to the cabinet.

In a week, the regional trade department in Changzamtok issued about two to three bar licenses. “We can’t control the increasing number of bars, once applicants have the city corporation’s approval,” Dungtu said.

Thimphu city corporation’s executive secretary Phuntsho Gyeltshen said both the forms for application and licenses were issued by the trade and refused to comment further.

Most existing bars, however, Dungtu said, existed some five to 10 years back.

Alcohol-related diseases top the list of causes of death among Bhutanese. About 45 people died last year from liver diseases from alcohol.

A majority of the patients in medical wards at Thimphu national referral hospital, senior medical specialist Dr Tashi Wangdi said, were alcohol-related.

He said focusing just on alcohol-related diseases and patients suffering from it at the hospital painted a narrow picture of the problem.

“Alcohol increases risk behaviour as it contributes to HIV and STIs,” he said. Besides, it was also the main cause of domestic violence and increasing number of divorces. He said it also led to people experimenting with other drugs.

“It is an issue the size of an elephant in a small room, which everybody fail to notice,” Dr Tashi Wangdi said.