It’s official. Women in India binge on alcohol as much as men, according to a report in The Telegraph, Calcutta. Although alcohol use is still lower among women, there are few differences in their drinking patterns, according to a NIMHANS study. Six out of 10 women have five drinks in a typical drinking session, a level addiction specialists describe as “hazardous drinking”.
Infographic: courtesy The Telegraph
Read the full article: Booze binge blurs gender divide
Tags: Churumuri, NIMHANS, The Telegraph, Vijay Mallya
30 April 2008 at 3:55 pm
Have they equated Bangalore with whole of Karnataka?
30 April 2008 at 4:26 pm
Hi
I don’t subscribe to this study.
Did they miss all the women in Mumbai,Pune ,Delhi etc who drink?
You mean to tell me more % the women population drink in Orissa and Andhra compared to a Mumbai or a Delhi?
May be the non drinking women of Maharashtra minus Mumbai nullified the concentration of women drinkers in a Mumbai/Pune.
Man, statistics is skewed..but not this skewed.
The guys who did this work need to read their books on Sampling again.
30 April 2008 at 5:58 pm
@Nikhil
Not necessarily. If you look at the map on the left, prevalence of drinking among women is almost uniformly higher among the tribal belt i.e., Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Orissa and Telangana.
This is because drinking taboos are fewer in these communities, and doesn’t have to do with socio-economic/moral standards.
Plus, “drinking” for the purposes of this survey at least, seems to be any kind of alcohol, including I assume, locally brewed liquor.
30 April 2008 at 6:47 pm
Long live Mallya’s dear beer girls. As somebody pointed earlier in another context, if we have no objection to actresses from the North parading their endowments in Kannada movies, why worry about cheer girls? We are talking as if cleavage is a thing unheard of.
Having cheergirls, well, cheer the audience and the teams is surely a U. S. practice. Our country in its adoration of America has reached a point where it would not mind becoming the fifty-first state of the U. S. And we have for prime minister a World Bank flunkey who has no idea at all about what globalization is costing us.
Dewesternization would be similar to Mao’s brutal cultural re-education. Isn’t there some other way for us to maintain a modicum of our self-respect as a people? For that we will need a Ravi Krishna Reddy in every legislative post in the country. I hope Reddy will be elected and not disappoint us if he is.
30 April 2008 at 7:55 pm
So what if women drink liquor?? They have a life too and they will decide what is good for them and what is not!!
1 May 2008 at 1:37 am
Well said Sir Kadana. Besides, this study tells me that women in all the dark states are easier to get into the sack.
1 May 2008 at 1:49 am
I don’t think that this report has either the credibility or the quality to warrant any attention. Plus the map shown is not cited, nor does it have any relevance to ‘binge’ drinking. All it shows are percentages of people who ‘drink’. Which is fairly meaningless when analyzing health issues involved. Drinking in moderation is perfectly healthy and may even by healthier than not drinking at all. Plus Ramados’ statement that “Alcohol use is among India’s gravest public health issues,” has no evidence to back it up and seems a completely ad-hoc statement.
1 May 2008 at 5:14 am
“It’s official.” Women in India binge on alcohol as much as men, “according to a report in The Telegraph, Calcutta.”
Each media house worth a penny enjoys its birthright towards officially representing India and the voice of her people thru SMS polls, “sample surveys” and what not…
1 May 2008 at 11:20 am
Hey man.. this is ridiculous, do you notice that the % in the map on the right shows dark red for more than 5%
The dark reds are not the same in both maps.. it is true that in some places women are drinking as much as men, but in the most part of it thats not true…
1 May 2008 at 6:36 pm
We could do with some more clarity here. However, if there is a general trend of women drinking deeper (as in more intake –longer swigs, binge) while men are more drinking regulary (everyday) on an average, I would be inclined to agree. Why? Nothing backed by statistics, but I think there may be women who would do emotional drinking, party drinking, drinking like there is no tomorrow (because the next drinking session maybe months away) or because the drinking occassions are so rare anyway.
Men can afford to nurse their drinks well into the wee hours, always know that there is tomorrow evening and well, may be more habitual in their approach to good things in life!
2 May 2008 at 7:59 am
I wish Yendkudka Rathna could comment on this issue.
2 May 2008 at 11:15 am
It is official: Men in India binge drink as much as women.
The more interesting poll would be to see how many women are getting back home and beating husbands, or blowing all the family money on alcohol. That day will come soon, and then officially the gender divide will be smoothened.
2 May 2008 at 11:38 am
Heard that Mrs.Ambani quit drinking since the 8000 crore home construction started…
3 May 2008 at 8:46 am
After the elections, will Karnataka look even darker than it now does on the map? Our leaders have offered the electorate everything but free liquor publicly. In reality, barrels roll. I believe we are the first in the nation when it comes to suicides and sixth in the matter of alcoholism. Karnataka has to be number one in everything.
3 May 2008 at 8:49 am
Oh yes, Kannadigare, don’t forget that it was the liquor lobby money that brought Rajkumar back from Veerappan’s hell.
Where else in but in Karnataka can you find an eponymously named politician like Maleekayya Guththedaar? That could be the name of every politician in our state.
6 May 2008 at 5:00 pm
Its seriously amazing that all the commenters have missed that the quantification in both maps are not same.. This reinstates my faith in manipulative journalism being effective. I am planning to apply for tehelka soon and learn more of this trade…