Speakers
This panel discussion examines India’s relationship with alcohol, from the colonial history to the current how deeply that marketing is rooted in history. Panelists will trace how colonial rule promoted distillery-based alcohol production to extract revenue for the empire, and how those same patterns continue to shape how alcohol is sold and consumed today. What does a drink marketed as celebration, sophistication, even heart health, carry behind the glamour?
Though direct advertising is banned in India, the liquor industry remains worth an estimated sixty-five billion dollars, sustained instead through aspiration, imagery, and social pressure. Recent research suggests that between twenty-five and forty percent of Indian drinkers qualify as hazardous or dependent drinkers, a gap the panel will contextualise through the lived and professional experience of its speakers, who bring perspectives as mental health practitioners and individuals with firsthand experience of addiction. Changing the image of alcohol as an essential ingredient of celebration, the panel argues, may be one of the most consequential shifts available to public health today.
Venue: Gallery
Speakers
Divya Nallur
Dr Divya Nallur is the Clinical Director and Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at Amaha Health. She holds a Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training (CCT) in addictions.
Upendra Bhojani
Dr Upendra Bhojani is the Director at the Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru, where he was also an India Alliance Fellow. His extensive research focuses on the political economy and policies of addictive substances.
Ashim Bettadapura
Dr Ashim Bettadapura is the Clinical Director of Mental Health at the Gibraltar Health Authority. He holds a Certificate of Completion of Specialist Training (CCT) in Adult and Forensic Psychiatry.
Aditi Surendra
Aditi Surendra is a writer and graphic designer who uses her lived experience with mental illness and addiction to inform and influence her work in the space of mental health communications.
Raksha Kumar
Raksha Kumar is the Founder Editor of Mentality, which is India’s only platform for mental health journalism.
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