Teens, more boys than girls, drink like fish during X-Mas, New Year's party: Assocham study.
In Bangalore, alcohol consumption among teenagers triples during the Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
A survey conducted by ASSOCHAM Social Development Foundation (ASDF) revealed that children in the age group of 14-19 years drink like fish in the name of revelry in cities like Bangalore, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Goa and Chandigarh.
More than birthdays and traditional weekends, December and January are the periods of greatest alcohol consumption of months, reveals the latest Assocham survey on ‘Consumption of alcohol during Christmas and New Year’s Eve 2013’.
“Reasons for rising liquor consumption among teens include easy money, availability of imported brands, absent parents and more spending power,” said DS Rawat, secretary general, Assocham, while releasing the survey.
The survey in which more than 1,500 teenagers (14 to 19) and 1,000 youth in the age group of 20 to 29 took part, a quarter of respondents reported shelling off between Rs1,000 and Rs10,000 only on alcohol during Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations.
Sixty-nine per cent of youngsters aged between 20 to 29 admitted binge drinking during the New Year season, with men more likely to drink too much than women, the survey revealed.
Besides Bangalore, the major cities in which respondents were interviewed include Mumbai, Goa, Cochin, Hyderabad, Ahemdabad, Kolkata, Delhi-NCR, Chandigarh and Dehradun. It came out that besides in Bangalore, the consumption of liquor is more in vogue in Delhi-NCR, followed by Mumbai, Goa and Chandigarh.
“Peer pressure, plenty of pocketmoney and absentee parents mean the drinking age is dropping in metros. There has been a marked increase in alcohol consumption among teenagers and are strongly influenced by males in the family,” said Rawat.
With Christmas parties, end-of-year celebrations and upcoming new years, alcohol consumption is likely to increase more than 180% this season as against 105% per cent in the previous year, added Rawat.
“More than 52% of teens who admitted drinking said they drink when they are upset; 8% said they drink alone; 2% said they drink when they are bored; and 47% said they drink to get high”, the survey said.
Teenage boys are much more likely than teenage girls to say they have tried alcohol. Fruit-flavoured alcoholic beverages are particularly appealing to girls who often do not like the taste of alcohol, adds the Assocham findings.
Usage of alcohol has also resulted in deliberate self-harm, high-risk sexual behaviour, HIV infection, tuberculosis, oesophageal cancer, liver disease, duodenal ulcer and many more, adds the paper.
Family history of substance abuse, prenatal exposure to alcohol, poor parent-child relationships and inadequate parent-child communication, conduct disorders, rebelliousness, depression, anxiety, academic problems, positive attitudes about alcohol, stress and poor coping skills all contribute to drink alcohol, disclosed the survey.
Further, the survey points out: “Low pricing, a lack of standardised proof of age schemes and poor enforcement makes it easy for unscrupulous retailers to sell to underage kids.”
Reasons for alcohol consumption
Lack of supervision
Peer pressure
Depression
Easy access to alcohol
Family or academic problems
Stress and poor coping skills
Sneaking booze
Cafes and fast-food joints serve beer. Pubs and bars slating early evenings as cheaper Happy Hour, alcohol is easy to get
There are also the hookah lounge in metros. The flavoured hookah often has alcohol as base, especially vodka or wine.
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