Of the World Health Organization's data on alcohol use, at the other end of the spectrum from Uganda is India. The country has been among the bottom 15 percent of nations in terms of per capita alcohol consumption for most of the past 40 years. As of 2003, the average Indian citizen consumed 0.3 liters of alcohol, roughly the amount in a drinking glass.
Like Uganda, India is an outlier in the correlation between GDP and alcohol consumption, though in a different way: While per capita income in India more than doubled between 1993 and 2003, alcohol consumption did not rise at all. (The FAO, which gathers different data, indicates it did rise, but only slightly.)
One reason alcohol use has historically been low in India is because of religion. Abstinence from alcohol is one of the norms expected of upper caste Brahmans. Some speculate that over the last 150 years, as the urban middle class in India has grown, members of the lower castes may have adopted the norms of higher castes as part of their identity in a new social status.
The Emerging Ideal
While alcohol consumption is low overall, it's even lower in women than in men in India, as in many countries. Though data is limited, studies through 2000 consistently estimated prevalence of alcohol use among Indian women at less than 5 percent. In addition, there is a persistent belief that women who drink alcohol are either less educated, rural women or members of the upper crust, leading to a stereotype that associates alcohol use with primitivism or privilege.
However, drinking is becoming more commonplace for India's professional women, causing the gap between drinking habits of women and men in India to narrow--a phenomenon also happening around the world. As women become more educated and more economically independent, women's alcohol use in some societies is rising. (And men's alcohol use, interestingly, is falling in some European countries.)
One contributor in India is employment. Though labor force participation dropped between 1999 and 2002 for rural females, rural males, and urban males, it rose for urban females. Contrary to the historical stereotype, these urban females now consume alcohol at twice the rate of their rural counterparts.
A Social Divide
In India, the change in women's drinking habits is not uniform. New westernized drinking habits are growing alongside more traditional habits, leading to two divergent patterns, says one WHO report. The first is the "traditional" pattern, seen mostly among less educated women in rural settings. They drink in binges and frequently to intoxication, and usually outside of social contexts.
The emerging drinking habits are seen in a quite different group of women--affluent, educated urban women, who are generally younger than the other group. These women drink primarily in social settings and they drink lower-alcohol content beverages like wine and beer. Women's drinking is perceived to be more socially acceptable among this group, and indeed, the alcohol industry has begun specifically targeting these women with their marketing. One industry projection anticipated that one-fourth of India's growth in alcohol sales from 2005 to 2015 would be driven by women.
New Drinking Culture
All this would seem to indicate that alcohol could in fact be the "unisex leveler" that one Indian newspaper claimed it was--but against the backdrop of Indian society, the picture becomes a bit more complicated.
There is growing attention by the alcohol industry toward the market of young female professionals, and at the same time, greater social acceptance of women's drinking. A study in 1997 in Bangalore city found that one-fifth of young people who frequently went to pubs on weekends were girls aged 13 to 19 years.
But the consequence of India's sudden shift may prove problematic. For instance, while the government continues to ban alcohol ads on television to stem the tide of drinking, advertisers have just subverted the ban with surrogate ads. The popular TV show Night Out also indirectly promotes alcohol, following young people at clubs in India's cities, including prominent appearances at brand launches for alcoholic drinks. So, as Indian society has outpaced alcohol regulations, future governmental warnings of alcohol's health effects may become regarded as equally irrelevant.
In addition, the traditional model of excessive binges in women's drinking may carry over to India's new drinking culture, cautions the WHO report. This practice, combined with newly permissive social attitudes, could position India for a sharp rise in alcohol abuse and associated problems. And India's case is of interest for many countries of the developing world, as women's roles change to allow them the freedom--and hazards--of drinking.
Top photo by kuntal41101 via Flickr
RELATED LINKS:
India Alcohol Country Profile, WHO
"Alcohol, Gender and Drinking Problems"
EarthTrends
Alcohol Consumption per capita, by country
