Itanagar: Most women drug-users in the northeastern Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh were introduced to opium by their husbands, a new study has revealed.
The household study titled, “Women Who Use Drugs in Northeast India,” found that 2.1 percent of females in the state were opium users and that “a majority of them were introduced to opium by their husbands after marriage.”
Among 100 persons, who were surveyed, 6.4 percent had taken drugs at least once, the study found.
A higher percentage of drug consumption was found prevalent among users in Manipur (28.2 percent), Mizoram (17.4 percent), Nagaland (14.9 percednt), Meghalaya (12.1 percent), Assam (10.2 percent) and Sikkim (9.8 percent).
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime commissioned the study under its regional initiative “Prevention of transmission of HIV amongst drug users in SAARC countries.” This is the first comprehensive study of women who use drugs across all the eight States of northeastern India, assamtribune.com reported.
“Substance use among women is associated with early initiation to sex, sexual abuse, greater number of sexual partners, exchange of money for sex, and infrequent use of condoms with sexual partners,” the study report said.
It noted that the prime source of income among more than half of the women drug users in Arunachal Pradesh is through selling drugs or sex.
The study also said that women from the high HIV burden states are slightly older, more of them tend to be widowed, separated or divorced and a smaller proportion live with a partner/spouse.
High HIV prevalent states are Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland and low HIV prevalent ones are Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Sikkim and Tripura.
In low HIV burden states, a significant proportion (57 percent) of women begins to inject drugs without transitioning from non-injecting.
Women in these states who use drugs exhibit greater frequency of paid sex as well as sex in exchange for drugs, the study revealed.