Are poor families now run by women

by N.S.Venkataraman

(July 18, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) In countries like India and Sri Lanka , the serious impact of the rapid spread of liquor habit amongst the people of all age groups is that the social and economic welfare of the poor families have been severely affected. Those concerned with the social welfare and improvement in the life of the downtrodden cannot but feel concerned about this scenario.

It is now reported that liquor sale is increasing at such a rapid rate that atleast 40% of the men folk of various age groups have taken to regular drinking and atleast 20% more have become occasional drinkers. Happily, this liquor habits is still largely confined only to men folk and the women still have not succumbed to the liquor trap.

The direct impact of the increasing drinking habit amongst men is that the economics of the poor families have been uprooted considerably. As a result, the responsibility for running the families have fallen on the shoulders of the poor women, who not only have to take the beatings and harassment from the drunken husbands but also have to feed the entire family and educate the children. It is pathetic sight to see these poor women working from dawn to dusk with fragile health and enormous anxiety writ largely on their faces.

These harassed women from the poor families often regret that they have married at all and perhaps feed that they would have been more peaceful without these drunken husbands around.

Nandini Voice for the Deprived , a Chennai based NGO in India receives large number of requests from poor families, particularly seeking support for education of their children. It is seen that over 90% of such requests come from poor mothers and rarely fathers approach for help. These women clearly understand that providing good education, particularly to the girls is vitally necessary to give the girls some sort of security later on in their life, if the husband would happen to be a drunkard.

It is typical of the culture of society in countries like India and Sri Lanka that these women rarely disown their husbands inspite of their drinking habit and consequent bad and indisciplined behaviour but put up with them as if it is their duty that they should stay on with the husband at any cost.

It is good in one way that women come forward to protect the family interests braving the wayward behaviour of men. But, the negative impact is that the children, particularly girls, lose the sense of respect for their father and perhaps for the men folk.

In a chat recently, a thirteen year old girl, constantly witnessing her mother being beaten and harassed by her drunken father said that she would desire to become a police woman. When closely questioned, the girl coolly said that she would become a police woman to beat her drunken father and teach him a lesson.

It is high time that the government and the society should realize the serious adverse impact due to this rapidly multiplying number of drunkards, particularly amongst the lower income group and the erosion of the place of man as a family head.

It is necessary that a careful investigative study should be made about this changing scenario in the poor families due to the rapid spread of drinking habit amongst men, which has forced women to take the full responsibility for protecting the family and the children.