The Union government on Tuesday informed the Lok Sabha that there are just four drug de-addiction centres for women — two in Manipur and one each in Mizoram and Karnataka — supported by the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment, whereas according to the latest available data, there are an estimated 57.4 lakh women dealing with substance abuse of different kinds across the country.
Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment A. Narayanaswamy provided these details in response to questions from Congress MP Shashi Tharoor, who had asked if there were separate de-addiction centres for women dealing with substance abuse issues and whether any study had been conducted to study the patterns of substance abuse among women in the country.
In the answer, Mr. Narayanaswamy said the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR) already provides for establishing and assisting de-addiction centres.
As for assessing the patterns of substance abuse among women, the Minister of State said that the National Survey on Extent and Pattern of Substance Use in India was conducted between December 2017 and October 2018, by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment through the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi.
According to the results of this survey, published in 2019, it was found that an estimated over 57.4 lakh women (between ages of 10 and 75) in the country were dealing with substance abuse issues.
The results showed that the leading drug abused by women of this age group was cannabis (34.8 lakh estimated users), followed by opioids (8.53 lakh estimated users), sedatives (5.67 lakh estimated users) and inhalants (4.29 lakh estimated users).