Karnataka - Bangalore   

Helping them battle the bottle

BANGALORE: Concerned over the rising incidence of alcoholism among the police force and seeing a need to take corrective action, the Police Department has decided to utilise the services of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) for the purpose.

The Director-General and Inspector-General of Police (DG and IG),  S.T. Ramesh, on March 16 issued a circular to all the units and Superintendents of Police in all districts to utilise without fail the services of AA in identifying alcoholism among police personnel and help them overcome it.

Mr. Ramesh told The Hindu here on Tuesday that AA had been chosen to help policemen get over the problem of alcoholism as it has an excellent record in helping people get over alcohol-related problems.

As AA works on the principle of “group therapy” and “de-empowerment”, it has produced good results. Alcoholics, Mr. Ramesh said, deserve help and treatment rather than condemnation from society. Therefore, the department had decided to come to the aid of its personnel police and asked AA to extend a helping hand.

Though there has been no study on the number of people suffering from alcoholism and alcohol-related issues, Mr. Ramesh says police officers from across the ranks suffer from this.

Alcoholism not only affects the effective functioning of such persons but also destroys their career and families, he says.

He says the programme has been launched not only in the almost one-lakh strong department but also in its training institutes. Bellary, Hassan and other districts have put the programme into use and other districts are on course to implement it.

Mr. Ramesh says stress and long hours of duty is among the main reason for policemen to go on the binge. He says he has asked the police officers to refer to AA cases of alcoholics whom they might come across while on duty.

Unfortunately, there is no study on alcoholism in the Police Department. Nor does the department have any exact data on the number of alcohol-related accidents or incidents.

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