KATHMANDU, Jan 6: Nepal has failed to implement fully the regulations to minimize the negative impacts of a rampant selling of alcoholic beverages despite the country abiding by the 2010 resolution of the World Health Organization (WHO).
The WHO endorsed its Global Strategy to reduce harmful use of alcohol through the 63rd World Health Assembly in May 2010. Nepal has also expressed its commitment to enforce necessary regulatory measures to check the harmful alcohol throughout the country.
Jyoti Baniya, president of the Consumer Welfare Protection Forum, said the lack of integrated law in the sector has failed to effectively check the rampant use of alcohol in the country. According to him, the forum in collaboration with the WHO has started preparing a theme paper related to the negative impacts assessment in the present situation.
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The WHO’s Global Strategy represents international consensus that reducing the harmful use of alcohol and its associated health and social burden is a public health priority. In the context of this strategy, the concept of the harmful use of alcohol is broad and encompasses drinking that causes detrimental health and social consequences for the drinker, the people around the drinker and society at large, as well as the patterns of drinking that are associated with increased risk of adverse health outcomes.
The strategy contains a set of principles that should guide the development and implementation of policies at all levels. It has recommended 10 target areas for national action and has set four priority areas for global action. These include public health advocacy and partnership, technical support and capacity-building, production and dissemination of knowledge and resource mobilization.
The existing laws allow opening liquor shops within a given time limit between 10AM and 10PM, prohibiting the sale of alcoholic drinks to youth under the age of 18 years, strict licensing provision, quality control, enforcement of card system and restrictions in advertisement, among others. “Although some of the local governments have brought these laws into force, there is no such legal provision maintained by the provincial governments as of now,” Baniya said.
The government has endorsed National Policy on Regulation and Control of Alcohol-2017, imposing a total ban on alcohol advertisement, promotion and sponsorship. In line with the government move, the Nepal Advertisement Board on November 10 issued a statement to stop advertising alcohol and alcoholic products, citing Article 45 under the Public Health Service Act 2018.
Guru Adhikari, general secretary of the Federation of Liquor Association of Nepal, said the government needs to categorize the types of alcoholic beverages in order to regulate their advertising and selling. He sought the government's action also to stop the promotion of such beverages through the use of social media, which are being done in an uninterruptible way.
