a) To provide national and state-level estimates of proportion and absolute number of people who use various substances and people who are suffering from substance use disorders in India. b) To map the presence of services and interventions for individuals suffering from substance use disorders and identify the gaps in service delivery.
Substances proposed to be surveyed
a) Alcohol
b) Tobacco,
c) Opioids,
d) Sedative-hypnotics,
e) Cannabis,
f) Stimulants,
g) Hallucinogens,
h) Inhalants (volatile solvents)
Methodological approaches
(a) A Household Sample Survey (HHS) in the general population:
i. To determine the proportion of people who use substances and people who are suffering from substance use disorders.
ii. It would approximately cover 16,000 persons per State and approximately 6,00,000 eligible persons in 185 districts of the country.
(b) A RDS survey with multiplier among substance dependent individuals:
i. To determine the number of substance dependent people. This will be conducted in about 2/3rd of the districts selected for the household survey.
ii. At every RDS site, 600 drug dependent individuals will be recruited and interviewed. Thus, at the National level a total of 60,000 (600 X 100 sites) drug dependent individuals will be interviewed.
(c) Focussed thematic studies
To be conducted on specific topics or vulnerable populations (in some selected districts) which are likely to remain underrepresented in the methods above.
The survey is being executed as a collaborative project between NDDTC, AIIMS and various Government and Non-governmental Organizations such as National Institute of Social Defence (NISD), Government Medical Colleges, Regional Resource and Training Centres (RRTCs) and Integrated Rehabilitation Centres for Addicts (IRCAs) of MoSJE.