Objectives
: Since 25th March 2020 India went into a complete and extended lockdown. Alcohol production, sales, and purchase were barred with this overnight prohibition order. We conducted a qualitative analysis of the media reports published within the first month of the nationwide lockdown with the objectives (a) using the media reports as indications of possible public health impact and population response of a sudden alcohol prohibition in India, (b) suggesting areas for future research.
Methods
: We performed thematic and content analysis of 350 articles published online in national newspapers between the 26th March, 2020 and 25th April, 2020. Initial inductive, followed by deductive coding was done in this exploratory thematic analysis.
Results: The thematic analysis revealed four main themes: the beneficial aspects of the policy, the harmful aspects of the policy, non-compliance and attempts to change and / or subvert the policy, popularity and level of public buy-in of the policy. We generated relevant sub-themes under main themes. Two additional themes, not directly related to the sudden prohibition, were use of stigmatizing language and ethical concerns. The content analysis showed the frequency of the appearance of the main themes and proportions of sub-themes and codes under those main themes.
Conclusion
: The harms, perceived from the media reports, should be balanced against the potential benefits. Absence of a national-level alcohol policy was made apparent by the reflexive, disconnected , and conflictual measures. Future research could systematically examine the potential ramifications of alcohol prohibition on public health, social, and economic aspects.
Summary
Resilience is a dynamic, multi-level, multi-systemic process of positive adaptation at the individual, family and community levels. Promoting resilience can be a cost-effective form of preventive and early intervention, offering significant health advantages for young people throughout their lives. Developing resiliency interventions for youth and their families in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), particularly in the context of the ongoing pandemic, is especially important given a lack of services and trained specialists, and poor levels of public spend on mental health, alongside marked and clustered psychosocial disadvantages and adverse childhood experiences. We propose a ‘hybrid’ model targeting 10- to 17 year-old children and their families, and options to engage through communities, schools and the family unit. These options will enhance individual and family resilience, and possibly buffer against adversity. The adaptations respect cultural and health beliefs, take account of structural drivers of inequalities and are suitable for LMICs.
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