The sea of poison and the ocean of ignorance

The sea of poison and the ocean of ignorance

Cultivation of bad habits and immoral things has become the most adventurous acts of the society.  Highlighting and celebrating these things considered as horrendous social evils until the recent past, has occupied the central stage in the mass media and among the gatherings.  The social thinkers, writers, poets and most of the social activists – especially those who are in the lime-light  have shown negligence, irresponsibility and even most of them became partners in crime.  Those worthy souls who have chosen to fight for the good cause are weak in finance and influence.  The blame goes over the decision makers, educationalists and the social thinkers who fail to establish the righteous society with a clear stand against the social evil like alcoholism. There are plenty of enemies standing in the queue to oppose and protest; now I have taken this one, the source of most of the crimes and the royal kingly crime, namely alcoholism.

Alcohol is bad for the health.  This is a universal truth. Alcohol consumption will spoil our health. It affects our organs and it also affects the social harmony. The country like India where the poverty is widely prevalent, the consumption of alcohol affects the family, the fundamental unit of any society, economically and disrupts its well being. The guardians of the people are the government. The respectable state and centre government instead of guarding the people they are effectively guarding the devils. India proves that we are the developing country in the production and consumption of alcohol too. Here some facts.

Ø  Consumption of alcohol results in 2.5 million deaths each year in the world.

Ø  Alcohol causes nearly 4 percent of deaths worldwide, more than AIDS, tuberculosis or violence - World Health Organization.

Ø  In India the sale of alcohol have seen growth rate of 8% in last three years.       

Ø  The Indian government statistics shows that 21% of adult men and 2% to 5% of adult women are addicted to alcohol in India.

Ø  The percentage of the drinking population under the age of 21% has increased from 2% to 14% in last 14 years.

Ø  According to alcohol and drugs information centre of India in Kerala the average age of beginning the habit of drinking the alcohol has reduced from 19 years to 13 years.

Ø  There has been a steady increase in the production of alcohol in the country, with the production doubling from 887.2 million litre in 1992-93 to 1,654 million litre in 1999-2000 and was expected to treble to 2300 million litre by 2007-08. Now we surpassed these bench marks.

Ø  33% of all road accidents at night (in Bangalore) are due to drunken driving.
 50% of Road accidents during weekend nights (in Bangalore) are also attributed to drunken driving.

Ø  In Tamilnadu, the whole production and sale of alcohol is controlled by the Government company called TASMAC (Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation) which has nearly 7000 sale outlets and about 30,000 employees

Ø  There has been a steady profit over the years for the government treasury. Reports suggest that in 2005-06, the annual revenue was about 7,335 crores of Indian rupees.  The most recent data (2011-12) showed annual revenue of an astonishing 18,018 crores of Indian rupees.

Ø  According to Assocham the alcohol consumption in India will cross 19,000 million litres by 2015 from the current level of 6,700 million litres.

Ø  The statistical studies show that alcoholism increases suicidal tendencies, incidents of domestic violence and affects the ability of a person to concentrate at work.

Ø  A study conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, Bangalore and sponsored by the World Health Organisation shows that 20 per cent of women reported domestic violence and 94.5 per cent of women identified their husband’s alcohol consumption as a risk factor in incidents of domestic violence. — PTI

Ø  The consumption is 2 litres per person a year. However, patterns of consumption vary. Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Goa and the northeastern States have a much higher proportion of alcohol consumption.

Ø  Women tend to drink more in states like Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, the northeast, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Andhra Pradesh than their counterparts in the rest of the country.

There are thousands of facts to establish alcoholism is harmful to humanity.  But the problem lies with the decision makers of the so called welfare governments of various states and centre who hesitate to take strong action against this social evil; one is left to wonder why in the face of overwhelming evidence they decline to check this flood of alcohol which spoils our health, wealth, family systems and social harmony. Do they think that they lack the strength to fight the devil? Or do they think this is not their issue? 

Technological development without the social development is the peak of foolishness.  The real happiness does not lie with materials that we possess but it concerns with how the people live peacefully and morally.  When the present rulers are not ready to check this problem, it is the duty of the people to change the rulers and bring in those who are ready to do that. In democracy the leaders may go wrong but people have to be consistently good and vigilant as otherwise the worthy things that they cherish will not happen in the country. The self imposed ignorance that we are showing towards prevalence of alcohol, negates the development what we have got in science and technology. Social and cultural developments are more needed in the society than science and technological developments. Do we really have the intelligence to understand this simple truth? Will there be deliverance from the ocean of ignorance?  

 R. Ayyappan