Do not to marry off daughters to alcoholics: Union minister tells people

Recalling the tragedy that befell his family, the minister asked, "When I, as an MP and my wife as an MLA, could not save our son's life, how will the common public do so?"

Union Minister of State for Housing and Urban Affairs Kaushal Kishore has appealed to people not to get their daughters and sisters married to alcoholics. In fact, he even said that a labourer or a rickshaw puller would be a better bridegroom than an alcoholic officer.

While addressing a programme on de-addiction in Lambhua assembly constituency in Uttar Pradesh's Sultanpur on Saturday, Kishore said: 'An alcoholic's lifespan is very less.' 

Recalling the tragedy that befell his family, the minister asked, "When I, as an MP and my wife as an MLA, could not save our son's life, how will the common public do so?"

"My son (Akash Kishore) had the habit of consuming alcohol with his friends. He was admitted to a de-addiction centre. He was married after six months, assuming that he would quit the bad habit. However, after his marriage, he started drinking again, and that eventually caused his death. Akash's son was barely two years old when he passed away two years ago, in October," the Union minister said.

Kishore told the gathering, 'His wife became a widow. I could not save my son. You must save your daughters and sisters from this.'

'In the freedom movement, in a span of 90 years, 6.32 lakh people had sacrificed their lives fighting the British while due to addiction, every year around 20 lakh people die,' the minister noted.

The MP from Mohanlalganj Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh also said that addiction to tobacco, cigarettes and 'bidi' cause around 80 per cent of cancer deaths. He urged the audience and other organisations to be a part of the de-addiction programme, and save their families.

To make the district addiction-free, the minister suggested that de-addiction campaigns be undertaken in all schools, and during the morning prayers itself, advice regarding this should be given to the children.