60 percent of Indian schoolchildren drink

Jahnava Nitai Das · January 27, 2003

New Delhi, Jan 26

Some 60 percent of children living in urban areas of India drink alcohol and are experimenting with drink as early as by age 11, according to a study published Sunday. The study, carried out by the New Delhi-based Vidyasagar Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (VIMHANS), said 20 percent of those under 17 are regular alcohol drinkers. "Often, the first experiments with drinks happen as early as 11 or 12, but mostly at 14-15 years," a newspaper said, quoting the report. "By the time they are 17-18 it's part of their lifestyle and by their early 20s, some of them end up as alcoholics." VIMHANS consultant psychiatrist, Jitendra Nagpal, said youngsters thought it was trendy to guzzle beer or gulp down stronger drinks. "Early drinking is often heavy drinking because at that age they drink only to get high. Most of them drink to keep up with the hip crowd and cement ties with their peers," he told the newspaper. Indian laws bar the sale of alcohol to under-25s and New Delhi does not allow pubs and liquor stores near schools or collages, but the newspaper said the rules are openly flouted. Jyoti Bose, Principal of the city's elite Sprindales School, said youngsters were hitting the bottle much earlier.

"For girls, its an assertion of their independence and for the boys, it is part of a macho image they want to create," said Bose.

Senior police officer Maxwell Periera said the youths were copying their parents. "If parents themselves offer drinks to their guests, the youngster take the approval for granted," he said.

debbie · February 1, 2003

I don't the percentage, here in the USA, but I bet we have alot,too.I know that some children do it because they feel it will make them fit in with the crowd.It is like they have to prove themselves, that they can do it and it is cool,or,so they think,anyway.

I have experienced what alcoholism can do to someone,the family,and their life,first hand.As much as I loved my father,he was an alcoholic.My mom drank,too,but not like him.He was a kind and loving man,but when it came to drinking, if he ever took that first drink,there was another and another,until he would pass out.No violence, just drink till he was knocked out.My mom and dad were divorced when I was five,because she felt it was not the kind of enviorment for a child.I guess she was right. But,even though I knew what I knew about alcohol, I had tried it several times, when I was younger.No,I can not lie, I am not innocent of doing this,myself,but I had made a promise to myself and God, that I would never be an alcoholic,like my father.Nothing against my father,but alcohol can do bad things to people,and some people it can make them react in strange ways.That is not the kind of life I wanted for my children, my family,and myself.I believe that God forgives us,when we fall short as long as we believe in Him.

Sorry,if I interrupted the thread on children.I was a child once, and I have been there,done that.I saw this on alcoholism, and it made me think of my father,which I loved very much..He had passed away about seventeen years ago.With all his faults,I loved him very much..Debbie