Targeting Responsible Consumption of Alcoholic Beverages: Assessing and Managing the Impact on Women Safety in India

Abstract

Consumption of alcohol may promote violent behaviour. This research has been undertaken from the perspective of correlation between irresponsible consumption of alcohol and instances of violence against women. The purpose is to examine whether leading breweries and distilleries in India are taking initiatives, under the domain of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), towards promoting responsible consumption of alcoholic beverages with the aim of ensuring safety of women and reducing harm.

This research entails systematic review and qualitative descriptive analysis of CSR activities recently undertaken by the top 10 leading brewery and distillery companies in India by net sales as of July 2022. For data collection, websites maintained by these companies and the web search results of relevant queries were explored. CSR-related content was studied to gather data on work done for encouraging or advocating responsible consumption and women empowerment.

It has been found that though most companies have taken CSR initiatives in the domain of responsible consumption and women empowerment, none of them has actively or directly promoted the cause of reducing or eradicating alcohol consumption-induced violence against women. An important implication of this research can be for guiding the CSR activities and initiatives towards countering a major drawback of alcohol abuse. One limitation is that it isn’t feasible to determine the type or brand of alcohol that is being consumed by perpetrators of violence against women. Therefore, findings have been arrived at in the general context of major business players in alcoholic beverages sector.