Three cheers! Women drinkers no longer vamps

HIGH SPIRITS: Women drinkers constitute 10 per cent of India's market.

Featured Blog

Rajdeep Sardesai

Television, for politicians with a vision

Featured Slideshows

Related Headlines

powered by

• Genes to be blamed for alcoholism among women
• Illicit alcohol kills 25 in Russia
• Alcohol map connects drinking and accidents in Kerala

Keywords: Women, Drimking

Mumbai:Latest research says India is the largest producer and consumer of alcohol in Southeast Asia.

And urban women, especially young professionals, constitute an ever-growing market in the country.

Looking back at Bollywood, in the '50s, a bold Nadira made audience gasp; in the '60s, Meena Kumari made them gape. In the '80s, Shabana Azmi made heads turn.

But today, a woman doesn't have to be a vamp or psychotic to have a drink.

Times have changed and many families feel comfortable with the women in their house indulging in a drink.

Twenty-three-year-old interior designer Gurmeet Akali's mother, a teetotaler herself, doesn't mind her daughter's glass of wine.

"I don't say that drinking is good, but we have a kind of trust in our children," says Aarti, Gurmeet's mother.

Gurmeet says her mother's attitude makes her feel like an equal, an adult and responsible.

"It's all about choice. I understand and respect the freedom that they give me with this choice," she says.

Gurmeet represents the new urban India, where women drinkers constitute 10 per cent of the market.

And spotting potential, wine companies are coming out with brands targeted specifically towards the urban woman.

A View From the Other Side

Though there are families opening up to the idea of women drinking, the relationship between women and drinking is still a moral dilemma.

With the industry on such a high, it's easy to ignore the lows and the proven fact that alcohol has a more detrimental effect on women than on men.

Reformed alcoholic Lakshmi Rana says the emotional toll is often much higher on women.

An early marriage, coping with two small daughters and loneliness led Lakshmi to embark on a downward spiral of alcoholism. Her husband was unaware of her condition initially.

When asked what her husband's reaction was when he found out about her drinking problem, Lakshmi replies, " I come from a conservative family, my husband was shocked and shattered when he found out."

It was a four-year-long bitter battle, with stories of traumatised children, stealing, betrayal and a helpless family trying time and again to get Lakshmi to quit drinking.

"When a woman is sick, there's no one to take care of the family. And when a woman drinks, she is labeled as a bad woman," says Lakshmi.

No longer a vamp, but not quite a virtue, drinking for women is still a glass only half full.