The Government’s funds for projects under the central sector scheme of assistance for prevention of alcoholism and substance (drugs) abuse remain grossly underused. In the last two years, particularly, only a third of all allocated funds for alcohol or drug prevention has been used.
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment was allocated close to Rs 45 crore for the financial year 2013-2014 but data with the Ministry shows that they could release only Rs 15.60 crore. Similarly, for the year 2012-2013, the Government released only Rs 17.91 crore of the granted Rs 40.00 crore.
This comes as a shocker, as by the Ministry’s own admission the numbers of drug and alcohol users in the country have been mounting. And in the absence of any concrete data to estimate the number of drug and alcohol abusers in the nation, even the steps taken by the Ministry to curb the menace are inadequate.
“We have not been able to release all funds allocated for the prevention of alcohol and drug abuse, as we conduct thorough verifications to check the authenticity of NGOs or agencies seeking funds. We want to be sure that the funds are not being misused,” said an official in the Ministry.
“We have been trying to conduct a pilot study in the high concentration drug-using States — Maharashtra, Punjab and Manipur — to estimate the number of drug users in the country and hope to start the process soon,” he said.
According to the official, doling out funds will be easier once the population size or concentration areas of drug users can be established. The only official Government data of drug abusers is a 2001 survey, which according to them is “obsolete.”
“The 2001 data does not mean much as the sample size was barely 40,000, from which estimations were made. The survey was also faulty as it did not include the women drug users,” said the official.
“Since we do not have any accurate data to suggest the actual number of drug users in the country it is difficult to plan and implement any policy or scheme,” he said.The 2001 survey carried out by MSJE with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that approximately 7.5 crore Indians were addicts.
The National Survey on extent, pattern and trends of drug abuse in India showed that the prevalence rates within the age group of 12-18 years were alcohol (21.4 per cent), cannabis (3 per cent), opiates (0.7 per cent) and any illicit drug (3.6 per cent).