UKEREWE District authorities are reported to have embarked on an education programme meant to tackle underage drinking.

This is described as an initiative whose originators say is intended to promote responsible decision-making among the youth in the district and the wider Mwanza Region.

With a span of variations, much the same can be said of what other districts need, depending on what is meant by underage – basically implying drinking before reaching the age of legal maturity.  But, of course, taking to drinking after that will be no less devastating even if legal maturity is attained.

In what is rather rapidly being viewed as a panacea for difficult issues, the district authorities are focusing on raising awareness among pupils on the dangers of alcohol use.

Much the same is being said, but much less convincingly, about teaching pupils on why corruption is bad – a lesson that can be exciting for a moment but unlikely to stand the pressures of real life.

That is also what comes up on underage drinking. The idea itself is timely as even in urban areas where it is easy to locate wrongdoing by the relevant authorities, the problem of hard drinks, illicit or not, is rising.

There is likely to be a plurality of campaigns about the drinking issue, a ready example being a recent complaint by alcohol manufacturers that illicit hard drinks cost them heavily in terms of market share and also eat into government revenues.

But what they will not have realised is that, for a vast section of the poor particularly in rural communities like the one where a campaign is being launched on underage drinking, such drinks help to keep a community together – with cost not much of an issue.

The same goes for cheap bottled spirits in urban centres if not in rural areas as well but sold in shops, even after plastic sachets were abolished.

It is true that underage drinking poses a serious problem of upbringing and making correct choices in life – and this concern is being addressed among pupils and is definitely the right sort of leverage when the pressure to start such habits is still building up.

The lack of supportive conditions at home leads many children into starting eking out a living for themselves instead of being in school. The moment a child feels compelled to earn some coins to survive or assist a family, the environment will do the rest – and it can hardly prove soft landing, if you will.