PANAJI: Goa has the country’s highest percentage of men in the 15-49 age group who drink alcohol, with 59%, according to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5. For women, the corresponding figure is less than 5%. Of those men who drink, almost half — or 45% — consume alcohol less than once a week, while 35% drink once a week.
“Alcohol use among men is highest in Goa (59%), Arunachal Pradesh (57%), and Telangana (50%), and is the lowest in Lakshadweep (1%),” states the NFHS report for 2019-21. The percentage of men above the age of 15 consuming alcohol in some form in Goa has gone up since the last NFHS, which had the figure at 36.9%.
