The carefree haze provided by substance abuse is a lure for
teenagers as irresistible as free candy offered by strangers to an 8 year old.
Both are dangerous, both are forbidden and that is what increases their lure to
levels which often surpasses the satisfaction they provide.
All things forbidden automatically become a must-have to any
human being. It is basic human nature, even Adam & Eve couldn’t resist
eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden. Teenage years are a time of
change for all, with major personality development taking place at this stage.
One of the most important and overpowering desires at this point of time is to
‘grow up’. Teenagers cannot wait to grow into adults who are taken seriously by
society, to earn their own livelihoods, to live on their own terms and to
entertain themselves as they please.
Alcohol consumption is an extremely wide-spread phenomenon
in the country, with children growing up to the sight of their parents and
other relatives drinking. In the mad dash to grow up, it is only natural for
kids to try and ape everything that grown-ups do. Alcohol consumption is no
exception to this rule.
The legal drinking age limit in Delhi is 25 years. That’s
right, one is considered an adult here at 18, can smoke at 18, give consent to
sex at 18, marry at 18 or 21 (females & males respectively), bear a child
at 18. But no, one cannot have a drink till the ripe old age of 25. “One isn’t
responsible enough to drink till the age of 25”, says the government. We are
governed by a set of laws which consider bearing and raising a child a chore
involving lesser responsibility than having a drink. If ever there was a
restrictive, regressive and intrusive law, this is it. Youngsters, by their
very nature, never wish to be told what they can or more importantly, cannot
do. It is the sole reason for this law to be one of the most flouted ones in
the city. Proof of this is painfully apparent outside each and every liquor
shop in the city, with youngsters lining up each day to have their fill of
hooch.
One would imagine the law would deter the sale of liquor to
people under the age of 25, but this is not so. It is easier for a teenager to
buy alcohol than to get an auto to go to home after 9pm. Neither does it stop
restaurants and bars all over the city from appeasing the thirst of underage
patrons. Almost all places with a liquor license in the city pour liquor to teenagers;
often right under a shiny gold plaque announcing “Alcohol will not be served to
guests under the age of 25”.
There are a lot of reasons youngsters in Delhi start
drinking. While some claim they took to drinking as an escape from academic
pressure or to cope with emotional problems or even family issues, the real
biggest reason remains, as it always has been, peer pressure. Most teens have
their first drink with their seniors at parties, just to try it. What begins as
a harmless sip soon blooms into a couple drinks at social gatherings, to
stealing alcohol from parents or other relatives to outings with friends
dedicated to drinking. It starts for a fair number of teenagers in high school,
with almost everybody becoming drinkers by the time they graduate from college.
The stigma related to drinking lends it an irresistible status. The patronage
alcohol enjoys among elder relatives leads teenagers to relate alcohol
consumption to being an independent adult.
Teenagers in India today, lead a suppressed lifestyle,
living under the pressure of being a generation growing up at a time the
society as a whole is undergoing a radical change. Westernization is rampant in
the Indian society, and India as a society is confused within, struggling to
balance out the ethics and culture of an age old civilization with new age
global ideas of socio-economic independence and self-realization. India’s
youngsters today can, in a way, be compared to the flower-power American
generation of the 70s. With each new generation comes a shift in thinking and
an accompanying generation gap. Unfortunately, the current generation
transformation is taking place under the stifling shadow of archaic laws laid
out decades ago by leaders who believed in prohibition.
Alcohol consumption is not an issue that can be tackled by
setting an irrational drinking age limit like 25. Youngsters anywhere,
especially in Delhi, with their “we can and will do anything we want” attitude
will always find a way to buy alcohol, irrespective of laws. The need of the
hour is to revise the law and set an age which is more in tune with the pace of
the changing world, acceptance of the rise of alcohol use, removal of stigma
and proper education. Parents, teachers and society in general needs to wake up
from its slumber and needs to take notice of the elephant in the room. The
taboo associated with alcohol in most Indian households needs to go and
replaced with an open forum where teenagers can freely discuss such things with
their parents.
This is the only way to tackle the ‘problem’ of increasing
alcohol abuse among youngsters, especially in a city where government approved
liquor shops fearlessly sell alcohol to minors, protected as they are against
raids by corrupt cops.
Only In Delhi.
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