Ningthoujam Helison Singh and Jitendra Kumar Kushwaha
Manipur University, Manipur
Pages: 148-156
Informal Alcohol production occurring outside formal regulation, licensing, and taxation
systems, which accounts for approximately one-quarter of the global alcohol
consumption under the unrecorded alcohol category by World Health Organisaiton.
Despite this scale, little is known about the alcohol use patterns of the produce themself.
This narrative review synthesizes the literature from the past 15 years to identify research
gaps and the nature of alcohol use among informal brewers, thematically analyzes the
prevalence and patterns of alcohol use, physical and mental health outcomes, and the
socioeconomic context of informal brewers. Databases such as PubMed, ResearchGate,
and Google Scholar were used. The findings reveal that informal brewers are
overwhelmingly female and brewing serves as a vital economic lifeline in marginal
settings. However, the review identifies a significant tension between public health
preservation and livelihood preservation. Key findings indicated a thin body of literature
on producer consumption, physical risk associated with chemical contamination and
occupational hazards are documented, mental health research is nearly non-existent
due to a lack of screening instruments for the population. The review concludes that
there is an urgent need for primary, purpose-designed research to address these hidden
health issues and provide a foundation for evidence-based policy