Close the bars; open doors to progress!
The rally taken out by women in Karnataka demanding ban on alcohol has gained national attention. Women covered more than 200 kms in 12 days on foot to press for their demand. Just when people thought movements were a thing of past, thousands of women have laid siege know Vidhana Soudha in the capital. This movement was not born out of some political sponsorship, but out of pain lakhs of women are undergoing everyday at the hands of alcoholic family members. Their challenges, miseries and difficulties brought them to streets. They weren't walking for the politicians. Most of them are daily wage labourers.
They crossed the line their men had strictly drawn for them to assert for their rights. But the way the government responded to this movement is highly disappointing. The CM has said banning alcohol all of a sudden is not possible. By saying “all of a sudden” the CM has tried to escape from his responsibilities. Because the demand for ban on alcohol is not a sudden or a recent one.
CM Kumaraswamy, being the son of soil, isn't a stranger to the problems faced by women in rural areas owing to husbands taking to alcohol. So is it feasible to assume that he isn't willing to ban alcohol? Women bear the worst brunt of men turning to alcohol for their addiction. This menace has contributed generously to farmer suicides too. This is the main contributing factor to increasing crime rates in villages and cities. Alcohol is a problem that comes with multiple complexities. It contributes to poverty, unemployment, lack of education and ruined families when it becomes an excess. To allow alcohol to be supplied generously and hoping to fight poverty, unemployment and illiteracy is like fighting the shadows.
Today we need to treat the disease and the symptoms that lead to it. All politicians have been nurturing alcohol by saying the governments are run with the excise money. Today even the Kumaraswamy government is saying the same thing to further its lies and shut the mouth of women activists. Government does not need excise money but political parties do. Excise companies feed flush funds into political parties. And this is not the situation of one party. BJP, JDS and Congress all of them are run by excise companies. If this foundation is disturbed, it may lead to devastating earthquake within the parties.
The excise department under the government, gives a bit and fleeces more than double. On one hand the government sets high targets to sell liquor. The logic as per the government is that with more tax collection, the funds can be used for more development of the state. But the huge point we are missing is that just as alcohol consumption increases, the society begins to collapse at large. Lakhs of people are losing health owing to alcohol. At the end it is the government that has to compensate for their health needs. And the money govt has to spend on controlling alcohol fuelled criminal activities is not small at all. Usually it so happens that the govt has to spend more than double the amount to compensate for ills caused by alcohol than the earnings that come from it.
On the other hand, let's imagine a situation where liquor ban has been implemented as a policy. People will stop splurging their hard earned money on liquor and save the resources. This will obviously improve their life conditions. The money spent on medical care owing to situations arising out of alcohol addiction can also be saved. A healthy person is an asset to the society. The instances of inebriated men attacking or assaulting women will also come down. Family life will improve in quality. Women and children will escape from illiteracy and malnourishment. With all this, government resources that had to be spent on safeguarding people can be saved. The money spent on creating awareness advertisements against alcohol can be utilised for better purposes. There are allegations that arrack sales will go up if liquor is banned.
A person addicted to alcohol can never give up his addiction so easily. He will look for ways to fulfil his needs. Then the fake liquor racket will begin to raise its ugly hood. Just as the govt bans liquor they also have to create a strategic plan to control arrack sales as well. Tough measures have to be initiated against arrack makers and sellers. Making arrack without the support of police and politicians is not an easy task. On the same lines, to say this government is run by liquor money itself is highly deplorable. There is no difference between granting permission to sex trade and running the government from that money. If the stage has to run on the path to progress, liquor stores have to down their shutters. Women's rally is a beginning in this sense. Let this spread across the lengths and breadth of the country as a massive movement.
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AIITA welcomes Karnataka’s ban on obscene songs in school events
Bhatkal: The Karnataka unit of the All India Ideal Teachers Association (AIITA) has welcomed the Karnataka government’s decision to strictly ban school children from dancing to obscene songs during educational and cultural programmes in government, aided, and private schools across the state.
AIITA Karnataka State President M. R. Manvi congratulated the government for taking what he termed an important step to preserve the sanctity of education.
“Such decisions to safeguard the dignity of school children and uphold the values of education are the need of the hour. This rule should not be limited to government schools alone but must be strictly implemented in all private educational institutions as well,” he said.
He further urged the government to address other concerns within school programmes.
“The government should not only prohibit obscene dances in the name of school anniversaries, but also ensure that plays and dialogues that incite religious hatred are avoided. Schools should be centres of harmony, not platforms for spreading hatred,” he added.
According to a recent circular issued by the Department of School Education and Literacy, obscene dances are adversely affecting the mental health and moral values of students.
In this regard, schools have been advised to use songs that promote nationalism, positive thinking, the greatness of Kannada culture, and value-based traditions instead of inappropriate content during programmes.
The circular also emphasises that students should be dressed in decent attire.
AIITA also backed the department’s warning that disciplinary action would be taken against head teachers if such guidelines are violated. The association has further demanded that district Deputy Directors of Public Instruction strictly monitor the implementation of these rules.
