An illicit alcohol production center in rural Bangalore - Nimhans

Users are getting younger
That the latter cause of under-estimation may be operative, can be deduced from the fact that the
mean age of the drinking population is above forty years, whereas the age at which the bulk of
respondents admitted to having had their first drink and the age by which they had begun regular
drinking is near 20 years. This would allow us to presume that a proportion of young people at the
beginning of their drinking careers have evaded detection.
This is important as there is evidence from work conducted on heavy alcohol users from this same
population, that the average age at which males start regular drinking has dropped to 23 years
[1998] from 25 years in 1988. The mean age by which they developed significant alcohol
dependence dropped to 29 years from 35 years in the same time period (Benegal, 1998).
The data gathered from this study also points to a significant cohort effect on age at initiation of
alcohol use. This points to a progressive lowering of the age at which consumers over time have
their first drink of alcohol.
There are strong rural - urban differences
in prevalence of use
Prevalence of drinking appears
significantly higher in rural areas
compared to urban areas, with (61% vs.
39%) or without (52% vs. 48%) the
inclusion of the tribal sample in the rural
sector. Tribal areas had the highest
prevalence of alcohol use in both men and
women.
The prevalence of alcohol consumption is
related to education and income levels
Abstainers were significantly likely to be
better educated and have higher family
incomes than alcohol users except in the
tribal population. Previous studies have
also documented similar findings that
alcohol use is more common among lower
socio-economic groups. The popular
explanation that alcohol provides a way of
coping with poverty and deprivation, may
certainly explain this phenomenon.
However, one needs to consider, in the
context of social trends in India, the
interesting phenomenon of sanskritisation,
in which as a result of social and
economic mobility, people of lower
socioeconomic class adopt the mores of
the higher castes / classes. It has been
speculated, that with increasing education
and urbanization and the resultant social
and economic mobility which saw the
growth of the urban middle classes in
India, in the last 150 years or less, there
have been rapid changes in diet (in favour
of vegetarianism and abstinence from
28.33
19
11.29
15
2.04
Sample estimates
58.34
Industry estimates
7
Whisky
Brandy
Rum
White spirits
From: Indian Spirits Market, by RaboIndia Finance Ltd. April 2002
59
75