AIIMS Study Says About 5.7 Crore Indians Are Alcoholic

A study by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) has disclosed that 5.7 crore Indians are dependent to alcohol and about 8.5 lakh individuals inject drugs.

A report by the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC) under All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi has revealed that 5.7 crore individuals are estimated to be dependent on alcohol. In alternative words, each third alcohol user in India need help for alcohol-related problems.

The study further reveals that 16 crore individuals in India between the age of 10 to 75 consume alcohol. The report titled “Magnitude of Substance Use in India” showed that usage of alternative psychoactive substances such cannabis (bhang and ganja/charas), opioids (opium, hard drug and pharmaceutical opioids), cocaine, amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS), sedatives, inhalants, and hallucinogens have conjointly hyperbolic.

At the national level, a complete of 200,111 households were visited in 186 districts and a complete of 473,569 people were interviewed. Talking to the media, Dr. Atul Ambekar, Professor, NDDTC, AIIMS, New Delhi said: “It is for the first time a categorical survey on psychoactive substances are conducted in India together with all the states and Union Territories.”

States with most dependencies on alcohol are Chhattisgarh, Tripura, Punjab, Arunachal Pradesh, and Goa. Moreover, Ambekar added that the employment of hard drug has conjointly escalated in huge quantity with 1.14% of usage against 0.2% as per the last survey at the national level conducted in 2004.

The large portion of people are suffering from the addiction in India and that they aren't receiving any treatment. The report also revealed that there are about 8.5 Lakh People Who Inject Drugs (PWID). States leading in PWID are Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, and Nagaland.

Ambekar asserts, “With the explicit division of state-wise survey it might be easier to observe that state consumes that drug and so, a lot of specific awareness method will be undertaken by the state and central government. It'll bring out speedy tips additionally as implementation.”

The massive survey was conducted by NDDTC, 10 Medical colleges, and 15 NGOs. The groundwork commenced in 2017 and led to 0ctober 2018. The last National Survey on the extent, pattern, and trend of abuse was within the year 2000-2001. The report was published in 2004. However, the Survey failed to provide any State-level estimates. Both the surveys were sponsored and commissioned by the Ministry of Social Justice and authorization.

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