“Alcohol robs young people, their families and societies of their lives and potential,”
– Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization.
About the Author:
Every 10 seconds a person dies from alcohol-related causes. The Global Information System on Alcohol and Health (GISAH) suggests that globally, 3 million deaths are contributed by alcohol each year. 5.1% of the global burden of disease is caused by the harmful use of alcohol. The report also suggests that alcoholism is a dominant factor in causing 10% death among the age group between 15 and 49 years due to premature mortality and disability.
Alcohol is a toxic and psychoactive substance with dependence producing properties. Visiting alcohol beverages has become a routine part of life in today’s society. SDG Target 3.5 aims to strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol. The World Health Organization Global Alcohol Action Plan 2022–2030 was endorsed by the Seventy-fifth World Health Assembly in May 2022 to effectively implement the global strategy to reduce the harmful use of alcohol as a public health priority.
Impact of alcoholism:-
Impact on society:-
The ill effects of alcoholism are not confined to the person who uses it and those living closest to them. It has an extensive effect on the society. Numerous research reports attest to the significant impact of drinking on
accidents, suicide and violence. Drinking until one gets intoxicated increases the probability of causing injury or death from accidents and violence. Reports suggest that in 40 – 80% cases, the offender had been intoxicated. Even though intoxication is not the only reason behind the crimes and violence happening in the society, looking from a preventive perspective, we can see that injuries from suicides, accidents as well as violence has significantly reduced when alcohol consumption in a population has been reduced, whether as a result of some particular policy measures or for other reason. A society which is tolerant towards public drinking goes hand in hand with high arrest rates and social crimes.
Impact on the family life and work place
Alcohol consumption by parents may negatively impact their parenting skills which would in turn have negative consequences on the children as parents fail provide correct guidance. Drinking parents frequently demonstrate a greater tolerance of adolescent drinking and other substance use. This acts as an implicit approval for the adolescents to use such substances. Excessive drinking can also lead to marital conflicts, child physical abuses etc. Parental drinking can thus seriously harm a child’s development. Many studies have shown that heavy drinking and unemployment go together. Studies have shown that alcohol dependent people are prone to more sick leaves than the others at work place thereby increasing the possibility of job loss.
Impact on health:-
Alcohol undoubtedly causes grievous injuries to ones health which can even lead to death. It effects the central nervous system and increases the risk of intentional and unintentional injuries and adverse social consequences. It also effects our digestive and cardiovascular system. International Agency for Research on Cancer has classified Alcoholic beverages as ‘carcinogenic’. As an immunosuppressant, alcohol increases the vulnerability towards communicable diseases like tuberculosis and HIV. Surrogate and illegally produced alcohols can bring an extra health risk from toxic contaminants. Alcoholism is responsible for 7.1% and 2.2% of the global burden of disease for males and females respectively.
Liquor shop free gram panchayat : An initiative of Sai Gramam
On 20th July, 2011 Mudakkal Gram Panchayat was declared “Liquor shop free Gram Panchayat” which was the prestigious initiative of Sai Gramam. This initiative was launched on the Gandhi Jayanthi day in 2009 with the objective of spreading awareness about the ill effects of alcohol. The message of the injurious impacts of alcohol was spread to the whole population in the panchayat which was around 43,104. Sai Gramam undertook a silent protest against alcoholism which included holding meetings in the 20 wards of the Grama Panchayat without any picketing or fasting. Gradually people were ready to give up liquor. The Toddy shops were forced to close down once they stopped getting any business and incurred losses.
Mudakkal Grama panchayat had two liquor shops working. It was as the result of the relentless efforts for almost one and a half years from the part of the Executive director of Sai Gramam K N Anandakumar and the other team members of Sai gramam by spreading their message on the ill effects of alcohol. He spread the message among thousands of families and the Kudumbasree units of the panchayat. This contributed to the success of this initiative.As a result of the awareness program conducted, one of the liquor shops was closed down due to loss incurred as people slowly started to abandon alcohol consumption. Initiatives were taken to approach the owner of the other liquor shop that was working and to give him a share of his profit from the shop to shut down the shop. But before the need for all these, there was an order from government to officially shut down the only liquor shop working due to a fight that happened in the shop.The then excise minister congratulated Sai Gramam and announced that it was the first such successful initiative in Kerala in the last 25 years. This proved the fact that people received idea about the ill effects of alcohol. The result was that there are no outlets of beverages corporation in the panchayat.
This model introduced by the NGO Sai Gramam has opened our minds and made us understand that wiping out the use of alcohol in our society is not a herculean task to achieve. This model can be used to reduce the alcohol consumptions in our country. As the proverb goes ‘small drops make an ocean’, small contributions or efforts can eventually lead to a big result. Just as individual drops of water can accumulate over time to form a vast body of water like an ocean, small actions or contributions can add up to create something great. In the long run such initiatives taken against the ill effects of alcoholism has the potential bring about great changes in the world.
About Sai Gramam:-
“Sai Gramam is made, with not just money, but with love, pain, sacrifice, humanity and blessings of the Almighty and one can experience that in every nook and corner of Sai Gramam” – says K.N. Ananda Kumar, Founder and Executive Director of Sai Gramam.
Driven by the insightful slogan ‘Service to humanity is Service to God’ obtained from Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba, Sai Gramam works to provide with selfless service to build up society’s cultural, moral and spiritual pillars. The Sri Sathya Sai Orphanage Trust headquartered at Saigramam in Thiruvananthapuram district was established on 17th June 1996 as an NGO by its founders Sri. K.N.Ananda Kumar and Justice Chandrasekhara Menon (late). With it’s pious activities, over 140 benevolent projects had been started during its 25 years of existence. It’s activities started of with setting up a small orphanage sheltering 9 boys in a rented house at Kowdiar Gardens in Trivandrum. It now stands as the largest NGO in India holding its light up high with great achievements which remain as the glorious testimonial to the trust’s persistent and cooperative work with more than 140 projects, 320 employees and over a million beneficiaries.
The trust’s works include providing quality education to children, free medicines and treatment to the poor, giving homes to the homeless, supplying food and water to the needy and more. Through these activities they were able to bring positive changes in the lives of many. Many people including children and the elderly who are deprived of the love and care from their family members are being raised up here where they experience the unconditional love in this big family.
The other works of Sai Gramam includes:
Litigation free Gram panchayat
Apart from making Mudakkal gram panchayat alcohol free, it is working on in its new vision of making the panchayat litigation free. The inauguration was done by Justice Devan Ramachandran by organizing a legal aid clinic at Sathya Sai Orphanage Care Trust on 24th July, 2022. The Sai Gramam Legal Aid Centre will intervene to resolve the grievances of the people of the Mudakkal and Mangalapuram Grama panchayats. Presently the survey has started only in the Mudakkal panchayat. To make the Panchayat litigation free ‘Lok Adalath’ was awarded to Sai Gramam. The trust provides legal support for those in need and for those who cannot afford to approach the court with a formal suit.
Yoga class in prison
With the aim to reform and enlighten our souls and thereby reform the accused. The Trust’s Yoga for Prisoners project is the first of its sort in Kerala and fourth in the country.
Making of a Beggar Free Capital City
Sakshathkaram which is the joint initiative launched by Corporation of Thiruvananthapuram and Sri Sathya Sai Orphanage Trust – Kerala. This initiative seeks to eradicate the menace of begging through humanitarian initiatives that can wipe out starvation and miseries that prompt them to rely on begging. The project has scored a whopping 90% success by appropriately rehabilitating about 90% of the city’s beggars.
Conclusion:-
Recently on 26 July 2023 Model List of Essential Medicines (EML) for the first time two new medicines acamprosate and naltrexone to treat alcohol use disorder. This initiative taken by the WHO clearly shows the importance to reduce the dark effects of alcoholism in the society. It is important that such initiatives like that taken by Sai Gramam must be implemented to wipe out the bleakness created by alcoholism. Valuable options and choices must be made available to patients and clinicians, to reduce costs and improve affordable access to the treatment of alcohol disorder. As the call of action remains clear, each of us has a pivotal role to play in the reduction of alcohol consumption in the society.
