Alcoholism and Gender-Based Violence
May 14, 2014
Ekatha organized two health camps in May – the first, jointly with Amardeep Eye Hospital, in Poonthara, Rural Trivandrum, and the second with NIMS Hospital in Trivandrum city. The response was unexpected: 70 came for the eye camp at Poonthara; and 131, for the general medical camp in the city- all in a matter of 3 hours each.
A mother of 8 girls explained why she could not have her eye surgery – she feared that her 4 unmarried daughters would be harmed, were she to lie down “with eyes bandaged”. Other women in the area have echoed similar fears and advocated for one way of securing the safety of their girls.
Increasing alcohol consumption is cited as a key reason for this insecurity, exacerbated in some cases by insecure physical conditions of their homes. With every step forward that gender equality takes with good education and health in Kerala, we appear to be taking two steps backward with the easy availability of, and increasing consumption, of liquor.
“Article 47 of the constitution clearly casts a duty on the state at least to reduce the consumption of liquor in the state, gradually leading to prohibition itself,” wrote Justices SB Sinha and PK Balasubramanyan of the Indian Supreme Court. “It appears to be right to point out that the time has come for the states and the union government to seriously think of taking steps to achieve the goal set by Article 47 of the constitution.” In Kerala, in 2014, the State has the monopoly on the sale of liquor, and it contributes to a sizeable chunk to the Government coffers!
Kudos to Mr. VM Sudheeran for reminding people of this Constitutional directive and bringing the alcohol issue to the fore, by initiating a dialogue on the issue! Here’s hoping that the present anti-liqour movement that he has initiated in Kerala will snowball and lead to real results on the ground. It will be one big step for gender equality – better health for men, less violence for women, and less crimes in general.
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In 2006, more than 60% of married women between the ages of 19-49 in Kerala, and 55% of the men responding to a survey (NFHS-3) cialis online justified spousal beating with cause (neglect of children or of in-laws). Why are there such high levels of tolerance for domestic violence in a state where men and women are educated? How can we change mindsets on domestic violence?
Recently, a husband returned home totally drunk to break his wife’s arm and smash other parts of her body. The wife expressed a desire not to return to the husband who had been beating her regularly since their marriage. When both sets of families intervened to protest his behavior, the husband cried and apologized pleading a one-time mistake. He argued that he had never broken her bones before! Moved by his pleas, the family decided to take no action, not to report to the police, and to send the wife back to the husband after obtaining a written statement that he would not beat her again.
What does her son learn from these incidents where his father can break his mother’s bones with impunity? Are individual rights so unimportant that the wife’s request to stay away from her errant husband not to be respected? In this land of Mahatma Gandhi, how do we internalize such injustice? Is marriage an institution so sacrosanct that it needs to be protected even generic viagra best at the cost of the women’s physical safety?
Time to Implement or to Amend the Constitution – Which Road Should We Chose?
Article 47 says on the http://methmonster.org/buy-cialis-online-without-prescription/ Indian Constitution states: The state shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and standard of living of its people as among its primary duties and in particular, the state shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of the use except for medicinal purposes of intoxicating drinks and of drugs, which are injurious to health.
In 2006, India’s Supreme Court noted in a judgment that it is time for the federal and state governments to prohibit alcohol, given article 47. It directed the state to move to ban viagra online generic intoxicating drugs injurious to the health. “Article 47 of the constitution clearly casts a duty on the state at least to reduce the consumption of liquor in the state, gradually leading to prohibition itself,” wrote Justices SB Sinha and PK Balasubramanyan.
Although prohibited by the Constitution, managing alcohol is within the state purview. Many states have established a monopoly over liquor cialis online cheap sale. Kerala today has a booming business in the sale of alcohol through its beverage corporation cialis online 20mg and not surprisingly, the state has the highest per capita consumption in the country. Importantly, today, more than a quarter of the State revenue (sometime reportedly up to 40%) comes from the sale of liquor. What action can the Government be expected to take under the circumstances?
Another viagra online overnight interesting fact is that there is little information on the impact of this increased alcoholism on the population. Information remains localized and difficult to find.
The Russian experience illustrates the dangers of alcoholism. A study published in the Lancet finds that 52 percent of all deaths of adults between the ages of 15 and 54 between 1990 and 2001 in three Siberian industrial towns were the result of alcohol abuse. A U.N. National Human Development Report shows that Russian males born in 2006 had a life expectancy of just over 60 years, 17 fewer than western Europeans, while Russian females could expect to live thirteen years longer than their male counterparts. Mikhail Gorbachev’s http://gopunt.com/cheap/propecia-online-pharmacy.php efforts initiated in 1985 with a massive anti-alcohol campaign including cialis online cheap severe penalties against public drunkenness and alcohol consumption, and restrictions on sales of liquor helped to reduce per capita alcohol consumption and improve the quality-of-life measures such as life expectancies and crime rates despite the fact that it was deeply unpopular among the population. While the nexus between politics and alcohol may be unbreakable without reducing the Government’s profits, it may be important at minimum viagra online cheap to raise awareness on the risks of alcoholism, at the community-level.
EKATHA has prepared a Public Service http://bluewaterropes.com/generic/ Announcement on the dangers of alcoholism. Please watch it and send us your comments. If you like it, please ask others to view it.
THANK YOU!