Article 18 Public health and morality
Public health and morality
Article 18 explains why alcohol is tightly licensed and narcotics laws are strict. Public health cases in the courts often draw on it alongside the right to life.
Article 18(1) makes raising nutrition and improving public health primary duties of the State. Vaccination drives, food safety rules and nutrition programmes for mothers and children all reflect this principle. Community clinics bring basic care to rural areas.
The State must take effective steps to prevent the consumption of alcohol and harmful drugs except for medical or legally permitted purposes. Alcohol is sold only under licence, and drug offences are prosecuted under the narcotics control laws.
Article 18(2) requires measures to prevent prostitution and gambling. Laws on gambling and on trafficking and exploitation give this effect, while courts have stressed that people affected must still be treated with dignity under fundamental rights.
In plain English
How Article 18 works
Article 18 has two parts. Clause (1) makes improving nutrition and public health one of the State's primary duties. It also requires the State to take effective steps to prevent the consumption of alcohol and other intoxicating drinks and harmful drugs, except for medical purposes or other purposes allowed by law. Clause (2) requires the State to take effective steps to prevent prostitution and gambling. These are principles of state policy, so they guide laws such as narcotics control and public health legislation, but they cannot be enforced directly in court. Courts have used the public health principle to support a wide reading of the right to life.
In practice
Article 18 guides a large body of law, including narcotics control legislation, tobacco control and food safety laws. It is not enforceable on its own, but the High Court Division has linked public health to the right to life in environmental and health cases, such as the order to phase out polluting two-stroke vehicles. Article 18A, added in 2011, now deals separately with the environment.
The text
What Article 18 says
18. (1) The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties, and in particular shall adopt effective measures to prevent the consumption, except for medical purposes or for such other purposes as may be prescribed by law, of alcoholic and other intoxicating drinks and of drugs which are injurious to health.
(2) The State shall adopt effective measures to prevent prostitution and gambling.
English text as published on the official Laws of Bangladesh website. The Bangla text is authoritative (Article 153). Where a court has changed the position, the status note above explains it.
Connected provisions
Related articles
Questions
Article 18: frequently asked questions
What is Article 18 of the Constitution of Bangladesh?
Article 18 makes raising nutrition and improving public health primary duties of the State, requires effective measures against alcohol and harmful drugs except for medical or permitted purposes, and requires measures to prevent prostitution and gambling.
Is alcohol banned by the Constitution of Bangladesh?
No. Article 18 asks the State to prevent consumption except for medical purposes or other purposes prescribed by law. Alcohol is therefore legal only under licence and permit rules, and unlicensed possession or sale is an offence under narcotics law.
Sources
- bdlaws: The Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh, Article 18
- The Daily Star: Landmark environmental law verdicts (June 2019)
This guide explains the Constitution for general understanding. It is not legal advice. Constitutional reform proposals under discussion in 2026 are described as proposals until enacted.
Constitutional and writ practice
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