One-third of family violence cases in Vietnam involve alcohol consumption: report
Saturday, May 09, 2015, 11:13 GMT+7
Nearly 34 percent of domestic violence cases in Vietnam are associated with the consumption of beer and alcohol, according to a report the General Department of Preventive Medicine under the Ministry of Health unveiled on Thursday.
Children become the victims of the situation since 11 percent of them said they were verbally abused by their parents who had consumed alcoholic drinks.
About 6.5 percent of the children polled said they were abandoned and over six percent said they witnessed violent acts by their family members under a drunken stupor.
Nearly four percent of these children were beaten or physically abused by their family members or neighbors.
In general, nearly 14 percent of the Vietnamese children participating in the survey said they have suffered at least one kind of the aforementioned abuses.
The rate is higher than that in other nations, such as 11.15 percent in Ireland and 13.1 percent in Thailand, according to the report.
The report also said that the average alcoholic consumption in Vietnam tops Southeast Asia though its per capita income ranks just the eighth in the region.
The consumption of beer and alcohol in Vietnam ranks third in Asia, after Japan and China, and has been increasing year after year.
With a population of around 90 million, Vietnam consumed over three billion liters of beer in 2014 and 2.9 billion liters in 2013.
In 2009, the nation drank two billion liters of beer and the number surged to 2.4 billion liters in 2010, 2.6 billion liters in 2011, and 2.8 billion liters in 2012.
Each Vietnamese person downs an average of 3.8 liters of alcohol a year in 2003-05, and 6.6 liters in 2010.
It is forecast that each Vietnamese will drink seven liters of alcohol in 2025, Vu Thi Minh Hanh, deputy head of the Hanoi-based Health Strategy and Policy Institute, said.
Vietnam spends around US$3 billion a year on beer and VND16 trillion ($744.2 million) on trademarked wine, excluding the amount of alcohol distilled at home, which is estimated to reach tens of millions of liters a year.
