Our People addicted to Our Brew

Everyday, hundreds of thousands of our city dwellers can be seen lining up at the teeming roadside bars of Bangalore, for a drink to drown their sorrows. In many cases, they are blowing up the days income, and that is the best case scenario, for sometimes they borrow money from the household to pay for their drinks.

Households of the urban poor are full of tales of how this addiction conundrum is wreaking havoc in their family's life, affecting each member of the family in a drastic way.
This is not just an issue affecting poor families alone. Even households that have modest incomes face the problem of their members consuming copious amounts of alcohol, having a large impact on the family environment, and their upbringing and influence on society.
States like Kerala have seen the impact of an outright ban on prohibition, causing a bloodthirst amongst many of its people for the strong drink. The situation has already reached pandemic proportions in rural areas in India, but unfortunatey this is one story which is rarely covered in the mainstream media.
 Though there is no direct, overnight solution to this issue that affects our families, the state has a role to play in ensuring its citizens are empowered to fight the effects of addiction through empowerment of the people who are addicted to drinking, education of the people so that they understand the importance of sobriety ,and encourage them to participate in society in a more meaningful way. To that we can all  say Cheers!