High, not dry: TS records 2nd-highest consumption of alcohol among male household

Hyderabad: Around 43.4% of the de facto male household population in Telangana aged 15 years and over drink alcohol, according to the National Health Family Survey- 5(NFHS-5). Telangana ranks second after Arunachal Pradesh where 52.6% of the male household population above 15 years consumes alcohol. In India, the figure stands at 18.7%.

In Telangana, 49.1% of the rural male household population consumes alcohol while the figure is 34% in urban male households.

Also, in the state, 6.7% of women household population above 15 years consumes alcohol, the third-highest in the country. In rural Telangana, 9.1% women household population consumes alcohol while the number is 2.6% in the urban area. In Arunachal Pradesh, the figure is 24.2% and in Sikkim, it is 16.2%. In India, 1.3% women household population consumes alcohol.

A higher proportion, 40% and above, of alcohol consumption among males aged 15 years and over is found in Telangana, Arunachal Pradesh, the upper Brahmaputra region of Assam, a few districts in Jharkhand, the Bastar region of Chhattisgarh, and the Chhota Nagpur region of Jharkhand and Odisha.

Meanwhile, 30-40% of alcohol consumption is found in the districts of Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, and a few districts of Odisha. A lower level (below 30%) of alcohol consumption is observed in the remaining parts of the states of India.

Tobacco use

In Telangana, 22.3% of males and 5.6% of the de facto household population aged 15 years and over currently use tobacco. In rural Telangana, 26.6% household male and 15.2% urban household male consume tobacco. Also, 7.2% of rural household women and 2.7% of urban household women consume tobacco.

The percentage of men aged 15 years and above who use any kind of tobacco exceeds 40% in most parts of Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, north-eastern states, the northern part of Maharashtra, western Gujarat, and southern Rajasthan. The use of tobacco is also high (30–40%) in Ladakh, Uttarakhand, most parts of Maharashtra, Karnataka, northern parts of Rajasthan, and north-western Gujarat. A lower prevalence of tobacco use (below 30%) is mostly observed in Punjab and southern states, except in central parts of Karnataka.