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| Sunday, 8 February 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Overcoming the 'culture' of poverty This is an edited version of a report on a study of 'Alcohol and Poverty' commissioned by the development agency FORUT (Norway). The study ran from June 2002 to June 2003. It covered several settings specified by FORUT as the agency commissioning the study. These settings included urban overcrowded communities (commonly referred to as 'slums'), dry zone and wet zone rural communities, an estate sector community, a setting of persons internally displaced and a predominantly Roman Catholic fishing community. 'Poverty' could refer to many things, including a limitation in richness of people's lives, poor income or lack of basic needs. All of these, unsurprisingly, went together in most of the settings that we studied. Lives were limited in the range of things to be involved in or to do in variety of interests in aspirations to aim for and in comforts and range of opportunities to enjoy leisure. We found that people with poor income generally but not always, had poorer or more limited lives. But poverty of lives was not always a function of poor income. Poverty seemed strongly to imply uncertainty and a lack of control over the future. Many had such regular and routine lives with so little variation that they could forecast today the routine they would have to follow on any given day in the future. But even such persons felt uncertain about the future. They were still at the mercy of such things as droughts and other natural disasters. Any variation from a routine and unchanging life was due to a calamity! Lack of privacy Many of the most poor in the city are crowded together. Much of the character of their lives is derived from the fact that they are unable to 'wall themselves of, for example as a family, from what happens in their community. The poor in the village and the not-so-poor in the city have a slightly better defined space, a boundary. But porosity is also found in several rural settings, particularly among those living in 'camps' for the internally displaced the estate workers living in the line houses, and in the fishing community. Because of not having a boundary beyond which the rest of the world or community cannot intrude (or porosity of the living space), the poor in the city's overcrowded tenements find it difficult to improve economically. Especially so if others around them do not particularly want them to. This phenomenon has major implications for those trying to work for development in such settings. Porosity has other important consequences too. The lack of private space makes it difficult to resolve conflicts in private. Loss of face' has to be avoided and, strangely, there is probably more fighting and aggression where people cannot have a boundary between themselves and the rest of the world, or the fighting is more visible. A feeling of 'envy' for anybody who rises above the rest was also strongly evident. People spend money on things that give them social credit. We found that there are massive expenditures on alcohol for 'celebrations' in poor families. It is almost as if they want to be envied their expenditure. Alcohol and substance use Significant heroin use was almost entirely an urban phenomenon. Cannabis smoking was common in several rural settings. Alcohol was everywhere. Alcohol and heroin are an integral part of the lives of a significant minority in poor urban communities. An apparent discrepancy between the qualitative and quantitative study results was the number reported to be consuming alcohol. In the quantitative study 63 per cent reported that they never consumed alcohol. Only 17 per cent consumed more often than once a week, and only two thirds of this group reported that they felt happier after drinking alcohol. But the qualitative study yielded the impression that nearly every male wanted to have alcohol at weddings and celebrations and they would all protest openly about not being able to enjoy the event if there was no alcohol. The quantitative component of this study included a focus on how people saw alcohol use and users. In this fifty nine per cent of the total number of respondents rated alcohol users as less attractive than others (versus 20 per cent who found them more attractive). Similar ratings were obtained for whether alcohol users were seen as stronger or weaker than the others, more or less intelligent than others and whether they enjoyed life more or less than others. On nearly all of these parameters the occasional drinkers and abstainers had close to identical proportions holding the same opinion, quite different from the proportions given by frequent (twice a week or more) drinkers. The classification of people into 'alcohol users' and 'abstainers' is often used in Sri Lanka. This division may be artificial. The more 'natural' division appears to be between the occasional users and non-users on the one side and the frequent users on the other. Others pay the price The effect of alcohol on the community was enormous. It was not just the money spent on alcohol, but also its impact on norms of behaviour. but the monetary cost too was high. The findings of our quantitative study correspond to what has generally been known and reported about the monetary expenditure on alcohol. Over 10 per cent of male respondents report spending as much as (or more than!) their regular income on alcohol. An additional number probably comes close to this. From a community development perspective this is a frighteningly large group - as they are probably the most abjectly poor and the most difficult to help. In our qualitative study we discovered that such 'calculation' of the expenditure on alcohol grossly underestimates the real cost. And this is not only because of people deliberately or unwittingly 'underestimating' the amount of money they spend on alcohol. There are two other mechanisms which came to light. One of these is that heavier drinkers make others pay for their alcohol using a variety of tactics. And this expenditure is not registered either by those who consume the subsidised alcohol or by those who subsidize it. There are several means through which others are made to pay for part of the alcohol expenditures of the regular or heavier users. Heavier consumers ensure, for example, that every 'fun' occasion is made into an alcohol occasion. The feeling that much alcohol must be served for a 'proper' party or occasion is constantly reiterated. People who are new to a group or junior in a workplace or boarding are made to take up much of the bill for alcohol when they go out with heavier drinking seniors. Collecting money from light alcohol users and non-users too, when special events are organized is common. The second mechanism through which some alcohol expenditures became invisible was the inattention to the amount spent during special occasions. weddings, 'big girl parties' and other celebrations called for large expenditures. Domestic violence The heavy alcohol component of this was not included in calculations of 'average' alcohol expenditures. But this money was considerable. People reported becoming indebted, and having to pay high rates of interest to 'loan sharks', sometimes for life. Property, jewellery and other possessions were reported to be lost to the family in this way. People in the settings studied appeared to be allowed freely to transgress personal boundaries after consuming alcohol. This was probably more evident than in 'wealthier' settings. Those who wanted to control what others say, do and think were able, in the drinking setting, to tell them forcibly what they should do. The stronger person, during the drinking event, was given the right to comment and criticize the conduct of others in the community. Some informants claimed that people said to be 'jealous' used this opportunity to ensure that others didn't surpass them. Domestic violence and gender based violence was almost taken for granted in nearly all settings as an 'automatic' consequence of alcohol use. deprivation of the needs of children due to the father's heavy alcohol use was regarded simply as a misfortune of the children concerned, and not a matter for special concern or mention. Women being abused in the home by 'drunken' husbands was known, and even heard, but it was accepted as fate or as an evil caused by alcohol. Striking differences too were visible in the way that alcohol affects behaviour. In an urban hotel, a wealthier group consuming alcohol behaved very differently from a group of poorer workers who came there once to drink as a special treat. Only the poorer drinkers became noisy and conspicuous. Similarly, when alcohol was used surreptitiously in places where it was prohibited, people did not become loud and aggressive. Many informants highlighted the impact of alcohol on public norms. The 'license' afforded by alcohol to say and do things without too much concern about social consequences has consequences. It allows the physically strong or aggressive to dominate others. And it permits 'unacceptable' behaviour to be openly admitted. Previously unacceptable behaviour that people learn to brag about in drinking settings was said to become gradually more socially acceptable with time. These ceased to cause shame or embarrassment, even in non-drinking settings, after they were publicly boasted about while intoxicated. There are norms about alcohol drinking too. It is almost shameful, for instance, to drink kasippu publicly, but it is not so shameful to be seen drunk on kasippu. Another example is the creation of strong norms commanding people to serve alcohol on special celebratory occasions. Criminality Criminal acts and violence appeared rather close to the surface in the poorest communities. Whether similar degrees of violence and criminality in richer communities are somehow hidden requires separate investigation. But the overall impression was that violence and aggressive behaviour was always lurking somewhere close to the surface. And it was as if this tendency strongly influenced life in the poorest communities. 'Everybody' recognized, for example, that the trade in illicit drugs and illicit alcohol should not be seriously challenged. The undertone of possible organized criminal elements was more evident in the urban settings. Poor people seemed to have more direct pressure applied on them than the rich, regarding how they should live. Others in the community could directly demand conformity. This applies to even how they choose to conduct a 'private' event. Parents in a poor community, who did not wish to have a party when their daughter reached menarche, could be asked to explain why. Some informants said that they may even be forced to change their decision. Overcoming 'culture' A comment that struck us was that people could never emerge from poverty as long as they lived in their overcrowded urban setting, irrespective of the income they were able to earn. One factor underlying this is the 'porosity' of living arrangements that we referred to earlier. There is no room for gradual growth or development. Any progress is visible, and others are not keen to see just one family prosper. The sense was that others would not allow people to develop, and that the shared lives allow them to obstruct those who want to develop. There may be other barriers too, common to both rural and urban settings. One of these is that people have not only to overcome their own personal and private poverty. They have to overcome the culture of poverty that is a part of their surroundings and their everyday life. |
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