Schedule Tribes top intake of tobacco, alcohol & paan

Morung Express News
 Dimapur | July 10  

The population of Schedule Tribes in India may be a meager 8.2% of the total population of India, but they top the list when it comes to habits of chewing tobacco, alcohol consumption, chewing paan as compared to the General and the Schedule Caste (SC) population.  

According to the Baseline Survey results of the Sample Registration System (SRS) 2014, which was recently released by the Registrar General of India (RGI), the prevalence of drinking alcohol among the ST male population stood at 18.2 percent.  

This is alarming when compared to the General population, which was a low 7.9 percent while the SC population stood at 14.7 percent. Likewise, 2.7 percent of females from ST population imbibed alcohol while the SC population stood at 0.8 and the General only at 0.5 percent.  

In the prevalence of chewing of paan, the survey revealed that the ST population also had more penchant of chomping the betel leave and areca nut combo (added with tobacco or without) at 13.5 percent of the total population closely followed by the SC population with 12.2 and the General at 9.1.  

Amongst women, ST population stood at 5.6 percent, SC at 4.1 percent and General at 2.8 percent.  

In the prevalence of tobacco (smokeless), the ST male population again topped the highest intake with 17.4 percent while the SC population stood at 13.1 and the General at 9.3 percent. Here also, female population of ST are far ahead in the prevalence of chewing tobacco at 6.1 percent while the SC and General population stood only at 2.1 and 1.2 percent.  

However, in prevalence of smoking, according to the survey the SC took the lead in this habit with 16.3 percent even though the ST population is not far behind at 13.9 while the General population stood at 10.1 percent.  

Amongst females, ST female population took the lead again at 1.4 percent closely followed by ST at 1.0 and General at 0.6 percent. It should be noted that the category ‘General’ excludes Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The survey was made from amongst population aged 15 years and above.  

Majority of the ST population live in rural areas and their population is 10.4 % of the total rural population of India, as per the 2001 Census.  

The share of the ST population in urban areas is a meager 2.4%. Madhya Pradesh, Maharastra, Orissa, Gujrat, Rajsthan, Jharkhand, Chhatishgarh, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, and Karnataka are the State having larger number of STs.  

These states account for 83.2% of the total ST population of the country. Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Jammu & Kashmir, Tripura, Mizoram, Bihar, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu, account for another 15.3% of the total ST population. The share of the remaining States/ Union territories is negligible.  

Lakshdweep, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, are predominantly States/Union territories where ST population constitutes more than 60% of their total population. No ST is notified in Punjab, Chandigarh, Haryana, Delhi, and Pondicherry.  

The SRS is a large-scale demographic survey for providing reliable annual estimates of birth rate, death rate and other fertility & mortality indicators at the national and sub-national levels. The baseline surveys also include other data points.