For 30-year-old Panchu, a domestic worker from Thuvariman village in Madurai, the opening of Tasmac liquor outlets on Thursday, brings back haunted memories of the violence that she had to endure from her alcoholic husband before the lockdown. She says that limited access to liquor during the lockdown had actually motivated her husband to give up alcohol.
However, with the reopening of liquor outlets, the hope of a positive change in her family has been replaced with fear and anxiety.
“The outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic indeed had a positive impact on our family. During this lockdown, my husband worked in farmlands for two days a week and earned a meager income of ₹500 for each day. It was the first time he paid the whole income he earned to our family. But, all our aspirations of a positive life has been tarnished with the opening of the Tasmac shops,” she says.
Like Ms. Panchu, wives of many alcoholics, who are from low-income families, are anxious and worried that the reopening of Tasmac outlets will further worsen their economic condition, pushing them to the brink of starvation.
K. Kala, who also works as a domestic worker, says that many households have not paid her due to the lockdown and that the family solely depends on the income from her husband to meet their needs. “With the relaxation of lockdown norms, fortunately my husband can work at construction sites and earn an income of around ₹500 each day. However, all that money will now be used by him to buy alcohol,” she says.
She adds that the move has also instilled the fear of contracting COVID-19 infection from their alcoholic husbands. “We are worried as physical distancing will go for a toss when they stand outside Tasmac outlets. Also, they tend to spend extra time with their friends after consuming alcohol, exposing them to many people,” she says.
The reopening of alcohol shops has also robbed the opportunity of the addicts to give up liquor, says C. Ramasubramanian, a senior psychiatrist and founder of M.S. Chellamuthu Trust and Research Foundation. “The permanent solution to give up alcohol is a change of mental attitude, for which restricting easy accessibility of alcohol was an important aspect,” he says.
Concurring with this viewpoint, Salman (name changed), the chairman of Alcoholics Anonymous group in Madurai, says that many alcoholics had overcome withdrawal symptoms in the initial days of the lockdown and started to adopt more positive practices in their everyday routine.
Dr. Ramasubramanian also says that when alcohol addicts consume liquor after a gap of a few weeks it might affect their physical and mental health. “It can also lead to a spike in the number of alcoholics who might need medical help at de-addiction centres, further burdening the health infrastructure during the current crisis,” he adds.