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A majority of the adult population of Tamil Nadu support the continuance of prohibition in the state. However the current level of support for prohibition is significantly lower than what it has been in the past. There is clear deterioration in the level of implementation of the prohibition policy.

Public opinion favouring prohibition has been strong and stable in Tamil Nadu. Almost year after year, about four-fifths of the people used to support prohibition. This year, for the first time, there is a reduction in support from about eighty per cent to sixty-seven per cent. Among the women who were surveyed, eighty-six per cent want prohibition to continue, compared to fifty-eight per cent of men. Giving equal weight to the opinion of men and women in this matter, the percentage for support for prohibition, works out to seventy-two per cent.

Among the strong supporters of Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran seventy-two per cent want prohibition to continue. Last year about ninety per cent of MGR's followers supported prohibition. Among the strong supporters of Mr Karunanidhi, only fifty per cent support prohibition. On the other hand among the strong supporters of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi seventy-two per cent support prohibition. In other words there is close affinity on the prohibition policy between the supporters of AIADMK and the Congress-I parties.

Respondents were asked to agree or disagree with the statement, 'I welcome relaxation of enforcement of prohibition', sixty-six per cent disagree with the statement. Among the landless labourers, sixty-four per cent are against relaxation and among the traders, sixty-five per cent are against relaxation. It has been held in some quarters that the womenfolk are against strict enforcement of prohibition but in our survey eighty-two per cent of the women were totally against any relaxation of the enforcement of prohibition. In other words, a vast majority of the people of Tamil Nadu want prohibition to be strictly enforced.

To find out how effectively prohibition is being enforced, respondents were asked to agree or disagree with the statement, 'I have seen people drunk even during last week'. A record number of 1538 out of 1891 respondents said that they had seen people drunk during the previous week. This all-high figure of eighty-one per cent shows the state of affairs in the area of prohibition enforcement in Tamil Nadu. In the survey conducted about a year ago, only seventy-three per cent said that they had seen people drunk. Taking district-wise figures, in Coimbatore district all the 118 respondents in our sample had seen people drunk. Last year in Coimbatore district, only two-thirds of the respondents from that district had seen people drunk. On the other hand there is improvement in Madras city. This year only seventy per cent of the people of Madras city had seen persons drunk compared to last year's percentage of eighty-three. In Chingleput district, there is clear improvement from last year's figure of eighty-five per cent to seventy-five per cent. This survey clearly shows that the law-enforcement machinery has a major role to play in the enforcement of prohibition in the different regions and quite a lot may depend on the senior officials who are transferred at the district level.

The survey was conducted as part of practical training in the collection and analysis of statistical data by the students of the department of statistics.