Sitting in the taxi to go home from Delhi airport, I sat on the front seat which I do out of habit and immediately fastened my seatbelt, but the driver drove off without putting on his belt, as soon as some traffic policemen were seen on the side of the road, the driver immediately tried to show he was wearing the seat belt by pulling it across him. Smiling, I told him that till date I not seen any driver in Delhi not wearing his seat belt while driving. The driver replied, “Sir! My liver is damaged, it is painful to wear a belt, I don’t get sleep at night, so I drive for twelve to fifteen hours, and I have ruined my life by drinking alcohol. Now I am just waiting to die. I was so accustomed to alcohol that when my friends could not find liquor anywhere, they would come to me, and wherever I put my hand you could find a bottle of alcohol, whether it was in my car or a house or shop”. He adds, “My name is Naresh Kumar, I live in Geeta Colony near Laxmi Nagar in Delhi, I had a good medicine store. Friends did not only teach me to drink, but also made me into a compulsive gambler. After losing my property and shop worth over two crores and losing my wife and a young son, I am now driving someone else’s car.
According to “The Global Information System on Alcohol and Health”, which has reviewed the effect of alcohol on health, the number of people who die consuming alcohol is approximately twenty five lakhs, while alcohol plays a significant role in sixty-four different diseases. Even people living near alcoholics are often affected. According to the data registered in the year 2005, people aged fifteen or more globally used 6.13 liters of pure alcohol per person. Whereas according to unregistered data, around 30% of the people used it globally. A report of says that 20% to 50% of kidney diseases, epilepsy, road accidents, violence, and many other problems arise due to consumption of alcohol.
Keeping in mind these problems, after the Millennium Development Goals, the United Nations implemented the Sustainable Development Goals wherein 17 goals were set out of which SDG3 states — Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages and target 3.5 states - Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol.
The result of this is that in states like Bihar, Gujarat and Manipur, there is an official ban on selling and drinking liquor, but most of the states are still selling liquor legally resulting in 62.5 million people in our country who have consumed liquor at some point in their lives. On the other hand, the fact is that unlike many Western countries, the consumption of alcohol in our country has increased dramatically, for example, from 1970 to 1995, there has been an increase of 106.7% per person in terms of population. Not only this, India has also become a major country in the drug producing countries, it produces 65 percent of narcotics in South East Asia. The effect of this is that in our urban areas, the number of bars and night clubs has increased in recent years.
There are 80 percent people in India who are can be termed as regular drinkers, while 20 percent are those people who believe in binge drinking. In the last two decades, the number of alcoholics or drug users was one in 300, which has now grown to one of the 20. The use of alcohol and drugs at a young age is becoming a cause for concern in India, some states have imposed an age bar on drinking, which is between 18 and 27 years, but below age drinkers have become a common sight. An example of this is Pratap Kumar Behera, a resident of Navaashi village block Bankidampora, District Cuttack, Odisha. According to him, “Since I was in school, I started eating gutka with friends and became addicted to alcohol at a very young age, which resulted in me having to leave school. I started working with my father who used to do shuttering work. I started earning 500 to 1000 rupees per day; later on I became a contracter for the same work. My earnings increased gradually and my alcohol consumption also increased, I used to buy only branded liquor such as Kingfisher, Black Label, Royal Challenge, etc., which resulted in me spending about 2000 rupees per day. But when my health started deteriorating and my life seemed to be going out of control, I decided to give up drinking completely.”
According to Shukro Kujur, 44-year-old Sarpanch of Lariapali in Sambhalpur district, Odisha, “Three years ago in our Panchayat, 90 percent of the villagers were addicted to alcohol and other intoxicants, including children between the ages of eight to ten years. Now the number has decreased to almost 70 percent, our efforts are continuing, we want people here to stay away from alcohol, women of our Panchayat have also formed an organization called Nari Shakti Sangh and are doing good work related to the problem.” The president of the Nari Shakti Sangh and also the Deputy Sarpanch of the Panchayat, Himadri Nirvaya, says, “Like other men of the village, my husband to also used to drink alcohol, due to which our domestic condition had gone from bad to worse, the same was the case with the other households. Therefore, we decided that we have to shutdown the liquor bhattis (breweries) in the village. More women came along with us, we created a huge uproar in front of the breweries, for which our husbands even beat us. For a few days we decided to stay quite, but after that our organization decided that if any person in the village is caught for drinking, then for the first time, a fine of one thousand rupees will be imposed. If caught again then the penalty amount will increase to two thousand, similarly, the law enforcers also made a law that if any villager gets caught making liquor, the first time a fine of Rs 5,000 will be imposed and for the second time it would become ten thousand rupees.
An amount of almost Rs 1,00,000 was collected in this way and the money was used for the beautification of the village chaupal which is used for public celebrations. The second benefit of this was that the liquor shops have been closed in our village, now people are walking around freely; the children are focusing on their studies. That’s why we can say that to ensure a healthy life, get happiness in abundance!”
— Charkha Features
