Alcohol addiction is a huge problem
in the society. It does not just affect the health of the addict but also hits
the economic and psychological well being of the whole family. In India, it is predominantly men who are alcoholics and men are usually the sole or major bread winners of most families. Men being alcoholics hence affects the whole family.
There have been
major debates over the ban on alcohol in Tamil Nadu since 1937. The ban usually
leads to alcohol being brewed illegally and this leading to deaths due to
poisoning, therefore banning liquor is not the solution to alcoholism rather it
is de-addiction.
Bala Devi, who lost her husband to alcohol
addiction resolved to make sure that the same plight did not fall on other
women. A graduate in nursing and pursuing her B.Sc Psychology, she noticed that
she had a knack to make people listen to her and take her advice.
Hence she
came up with the NGO, Christ Rural Women Developmental Trust (CRWDT) in
Tindivanam District in Tamil Nadu. The idea is simple, she, with her volunteers
go to villages and counsel men to give up alcoholism.
Though the idea is simple, the process is
not a cakewalk. She faces a lot of problems from the addicts; asking her to ‘mind
her own business’, asking her to get out of the house, not even looking at her
and so on. She also dishearteningly recalls how a man died out of alcoholism in
spite of the repeated efforts to help him get over it.
This certainly does not deter Bala, she says
that it takes a couple of weeks to a month for the addicts to even start
loosening up to her. She says that she has helped about 60 men to completely
give up alcoholism. Bala has earned respect and well wishers among the people
of the community and she is very happy about what she does.
Though she
is working towards the de-addiction of men, her end goal is to help women and
make them self reliant. She has started tailoring and beautician training
courses and about 500 women have benefitted from it in the past 6 months.
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| Tailoring class |
She is full
of ideas and plans to coordinate with companies so that she can export
garments. She also conducts cultural competition for kids to identify and
encourage talent.
She has come
to Unlimited Tamil Nadu to
help her with
coaching, networking, fundraising support and training. She
says that she has learnt a lot from the advice that receives from Unlimited
Tamil Nadu and by networking with other NGOs.
 |
| Women Learning Tailoring |
Bala says
that men who are not too addicted tend to give up alcoholism after counselling,
but the ones who are severely addicted need to go through a de- addiction
programme for which she is setting up a De- addiction centre. She is in the
initial stages of setting up the De- addiction centre and is highly optimistic
about it. She decides to make it different from the regular de- addiction centres
and has a lot of innovative ideas in mind. She already has experience of
working as a nurse in a de-addiction centre.
Efforts have
been in progress to ban alcohol in Tamil Nadu, but this has not lead to
anything fruitful. Bala has been making changes in a small but steady manner
and has certainly achieved a lot.
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