58.1 percent of the state’s men above the age of 15 years use tobacco in some form, while 43.1 percent of women in the same age group use the same substance.
TFM Desk
In an interesting finding, 37.5 percent of men above the age of 15 in Manipur now consume alcohol, while 58.1 percent of men and 43.1 percent of women in the state use tobacco of some kind.
The findings were published in the National Family Health Survey, 2019-2020 (NFHS-5). It provides information on population, health, and nutrition for India and each state and union territories. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India designated an agency to conduct the latest survey.
Manipur’s 37.5 percent for alcohol consumption for men is twice that of the national percentage, which is 18.8 per cent. Considering Manipur has been a dry state since 1991, the latest figure is alarming and interesting at the same time.
For women above 15 years of age, 0.9 percent of Manipuri women consume alcohol while, nationally it is 1.3 per cent.
In terms of tobacco usage, 58.1 percent of the state’s men above the age of 15 years use some kind of tobacco, while 43.1 percent of women in the same age group use tobacco. Nationally, 38 percent of men use tobacco, while it is 8.9 percent for women.
Another alarming finding as per NFHS-5 is that Manipur’s 13.6 percent of women and 16.5 percent of men — 15 years and above — are taking medicine to control blood sugar.
While 23 percent of women in the same age group are taking medicine to control blood pressure, 33.2 percent of men in the state are doing the same.
As per the NFHS-5, Manipur’s total fertility rate — children per woman — is 2.2, which experts say is healthy in terms of replacement level — the level of fertility at which a population replaces itself exactly from one generation to the next. According to the United Nations (UN), in countries with a Total Fertility Rate lower than 2.1, a generation is not producing enough children to replace itself. For India it is 2.0 as per the latest survey.