When the drink is in, the wit is out

December 22, 2011 | Filed under: In India,Life & Style,Your Opinion | Posted by: Akshay Gupta

Alcoholism has been growing in India, especially among the Indian youth. The alcohol consumption in India is about 6700 million litres and is growing approximately at a rate of 30% annually. Alcohol generates sales of about 40,500 crore and is expected to generate 140,000 crore by 2015. Alcohol is a toxic substance that can affect each and every organ in the body. Major problems associated with alcohol are – it slows down the functioning of the brain, it can damage blood vessels, weeken heart muscles and can cause ulcers. Moreover it contains absolutely no nutrients.

1) In family issues 85% of men who are violent towards their wives are frequent or daily users of alcohol.
2) Use of alcohol increases indebtedness and reduces the ability to pay for food and education.
3) At work places 40% of the accidents are related to alcohol.
4) Annual loss due to alcohol was estimated to be Rs 70000 to 80000 million.

Recently more then 100 people died and another 100 were fighting for their lives in hospitals after taking toxic alcohol in West Bengal. But this is not restricted to only West Bengal, it is infact an everyday phenomenon as seen in the newspapers and the government is not taking any serious steps to control alcohol addiction. Although government decided to give compensation to the next kin but will that compensation fill the place of that person in their family?! The need of the hour is alcohol addiction treatment. Alcohol addiction leads to people buying spurious liquor at low rates that ultimately proves fatal!

Hats off to the governments of Gujarat, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and the Union Territory- Lakshadweep for enforcing laws which lead to total prohibition of alcohol in these regions. However there is illegal import of alcohol through the borders of these states. So, its necessary to enforce a law for the whole country.

Although a large amount of revenue is generated from the sale of alcohol, but the reality is that the cost of health care is much more higher. My question is as simple as ABC, why should the government not ban the intake of alcohol in the country itself? We know its not a good thing, then why not take a responsible step in that direction? When you declare 2 October as a dry day then why not take a big step on the use of alcohol in Gandhi’s own country? Or is it just revenue that matters to the government?!

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