The dangerous world of Tamil Nadu’s alcohol deaddiction centres

In the last six months, Amala M’s family of nine has suffered untold tragedy. First, one of her brothers died of a heart attack. Then, another died of an illness. But while these left her grief-stricken, the fate of the third, Vasanthakumar, has also plunged her into guilt.

“It was a mistake,” Amala said with tears streaming down her eyes. “I should never have sent him there. I should have just let him stay here, with us.”

Thirty-six-year-old Vasanthakumar, who worked as a carpenter, began to drink excessively after the death of his brothers, Amala recounted. “He would look at their pictures on his phone and become depressed,” she said when I met her in September. “He didn’t go out and drink. He would sit quietly and drink by himself, right here.” She pointed to a bed where her two ill daughters lay sleeping on a school day.

Amala’s family lives in a small two-room flat in a colony built by the Tamil Nadu Urban Habitat Development Board in Pulianthope, Chennai. The colony looks neglected – its lanes are filled with litter, drains run full and plaster crumbles from the buildings, whose walls are covered in cracks and patches of damp. Its residents are also...

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