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Thai women hit out when they hit the bottle

BANGKOK: -- Alcoholic Thai women are more prone to hit their spouses than the other way around, according to results of a survey seen Monday as the kingdom launched a campaign to battle a surge in drinking.

About 18.6 million Thais aged 11 or older, or about 29 percent of the total population, consume alcohol, and the number is growing at an alarming 300,000 people per year, Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said in a statement.

While 83 percent of Thai drinkers were male, it is the women who are edging out the men in initiating drink-related domestic violence.

"A survey related to family problems found that alcoholics assaulting their partners is more common among females than males," the statement said.

Some 6.2 percent of female alcoholics assault their husbands, while 5.7 percent of male alcoholics assault their wives, it added.

The figures were reported at the outset of Buddhist lent -- a three-month period when many Thais traditionally abstain from drinking -- and as Sudarat kicked off an anti-booze drive.

"Even as alcohol harms health and society, the number of alcohol drinkers in Thailand is increasing by almost 300,000 people a year," she said.

The amount of alcohol they consumed rose as well, from a per capita average of 24.8 litres (6.4 gallons) in 1991 to 41.6 litres in 2001, making Thais the fifth heaviest drinkers in the world after the Portuguese, Irish, Bahamans and the Czechs, she said.

-- AFP 2004-08-02