NEW DELHI, May 17: Consumption of alcohol in Meghalaya was found to be moderate even though the same is on higher side in case of tribals and Christians who dominate the state’s population, an official study conducted by the National Family Health Survey-5 (NFHS-5), 2019-21 has found.
According to the study, the level of alcohol consumption among men is 30-40% in parts of Meghalaya, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Tripura, and a few districts of Odisha. It is below 30% in the remaining parts of India, and the lowest in Lakshadweep (0.4%).
Arunachal Pradesh has the highest proportion of both men (53%) and women (24%) who drink alcohol. Among women, Arunachal Pradesh is followed by Sikkim (16%); among men, it is followed by Telangana (43%).
Besides Arunachal and Telangana, alcohol consumption among men was found to be on the higher side (40% and above) in the upper Brahmaputra region of Assam, districts in Jharkhand, Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, and the Chhota Nagpur region of Jharkhand and Odisha.
The study also shows that alcohol consumption among both men and women is higher in rural India than in urban India.
Overall, 1% of women aged 15 and over drink alcohol, compared to 19% of men in the same age group. This breaks up into 1.6% (rural) and 0.6% (urban) among women, and 19.9% and 16.5% respectively, among men.
Alcohol consumption is more common among those from the Scheduled Tribes than from any other caste/tribe groups. This is true of both women (6%) and men (33%).
Among religious groups, the proportion of men who drink alcohol is higher among those belonging to ‘other religions’. Highest ratte of consumption is among Christians (28%), followed by Sikh (23.5%), Buddhist/Neo-Buddhist (24.5%), Hindus (20%), Jain (5.9%) and Muslims (5%).
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