“Country liquor is a distilled alcoholic beverage made from locally available cheap raw material such as sugar- cane, rice, palm, coconut and cheap grains, with an alcohol content between 25% and 45%. Common varieties of country liquor are arrack (from paddy or wheat), desi sharab and tari. Illicit liquor is mostly produced clandestinely in small production units with raw materials similar to that used for country liquor. With no legal quality control checks on them, alcohol concentration of illicit liquor varies (up to 56%). Adulteration is quite frequent, industrial methylated spirit being a common adulterant, which occasionally causes incidents like mass poisoning with consumers losing their lives or suffering irreversible damage to the eyes. Cheaper than licensed country liquor, illicit liquor is popular among the poorer sections of the population. In many parts of India, illicit production of liquor and its marketing is a cottage industry with each village having one or two units operating illegally.

Source: Mohan et al. (2001)”