In India, 13 is not too young to have a drink

Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss told Lok Sabha that a larger number of teens are joining the ranks of tipplers, posing a big health risk for the future, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Feb 25, 2009, 23:59:50 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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Though the permissible age for consuming alcohol ranges from 18 to 25 in different states, the average age of those who start drinking in the country is a startling 13 years — down from 19 a few years ago and from 28 about two decades ago.

Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss told Lok Sabha on Wednesday that a larger number of teens are joining the ranks of tipplers, posing a big health risk for the future.

“Till a few years ago, the average age for starting to drink was 19, down from 28 in the 1990s, but now it is 13.5,” he said in reply to a question.

Between 2002 and 2008, beer sales in India recorded a 90 per cent jump — the highest in the world — while China recorded an increase of 50 per cent and Brazil 20 per cent. Per capita consumption of liquor in India is 4 litres, half that of the United States and Britain.

Among the states, Kerala tops the per capita consumption of liquor with 8.3 litres per year, followed by Punjab with 7.9 litres and Haryana with 7.1 litres, according to health ministry data.

“Alcohol is turning into the mother of all health problems,” Ramadoss said as BJP members thumped their desks in support of a National Liquor Health Policy. “The liquor policy is the need of the hour if we are to check future health problems,” he added.

As he pressed the need to curb drinking, Speaker Somnath Chatterjee said, “You are extending your jurisdiction... see how many tobacco and alcohol manufacturers are there in your constituency.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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