Original Research Article The Journal of Community Health Management, January-March 2016;3(1):28-32 28 Substance Abuse among Male Youth Students: A Cross-Sectional Study in Chiraigaon Block of District Varanasi Sandeep Kumar 1 , Sangeeta Kansal 2 , Alok Kumar 3 1Resident, 2Professor, 3Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine, IMS, BHU, Varanasi *Corresponding Author: Email: drsandeep2k8@gmail.com Abstract India lies on the cusp of a demographic transition. It is essential to all-round development of the youths of India. Recent times have witnessed an increase in substance use among younger population. In India forty percent of men use tobacco in some form and One-fifth of young men aged 15-24 consume alcohol. It is estimated that 7.6 million people worldwide died of substance abuse related causes. To find out the association of socio-demographic variables on the problem of substance abuse among male youth students a cross-sectional school based study was conducted from March 2013 to July 2015. By multistage random sampling 570 male youth students aged 15 to 24 years belonged to class 9 th to graduates of all the schools and colleges of Chiraigaon Community Development Block was selected. Out of them 27 and 3 students were excluded from study due to unreliability of information and denial of consent. Finally 540 students were interviewed and thus obtained data was entered and analyzed by SPSS. Substance users were more in 20-24 yrs of age group belonging to general caste and having higher level of education. In upper class substance users was less as compared to non-users. Likelihood of Substance use was high among those whose fathers were skilled worker (35.7%) or doing some business (18.8%) and having extremes of education. Key words: Youth, students, Substance abuse. Access this article online Quick Response Code: Website: www.innovativepublication.com DOI: 10.5958/2394-2738.2016.00004.2 Introduction Youth is best understood as a period of transition from the dependence of childhood to adulthood’s independence and awareness of our interdependence as members of a community 1 . Youth Includes persons aged 15-24 years 2 . Populations of youth in India are 231.9 million constituting 19.2% of population 3 . This proportion has even surpassing the proportion of youth in China. Investing in this segment of population is the best way to leverage the nation’s competitive advantage – its demographic dividend 4 . In order to capture this demographic dividend, it is necessary to all-round development of the youths of India and seeks to establish an All-India perspective to fulfill their legitimate aspirations so that they are all strong of heart and strong of body and mind in successfully accomplishing the challenging tasks of national reconstruction and social changes that lie ahead 5 . Despite India’s commitments and although current cohorts of youth are healthier and better educated than ever before, vulnerabilities persist, and evidence suggests that many young people are not making a healthy transition to adulthood 6 . Substance abuse is one of the important key health vulnerability among youths. Man had always looking for something which made life pleasurable, and had found a suitable heaven in the bliss brought about by the drugs. The epidemic of substance abuse in young generation has assumed alarming dimensions in India 7 . Caste, religion and local customs and traditions play significant role in the choice of drugs, their consumption and their control in rural/semi-urban populations 8 . In India, forty percent of male youths use tobacco in some form. One-fifth of young men aged 15-24 consume alcohol 5 . The present study highlights the association of the problem of substance abuse among male youth students of Chiraigaon block of district Varanasi. Material and Methods Study design: To fulfill the above objective, a cross- sectional educational institutions based study was conducted in Chiraigaon community development block of district Varanasi from March 2013 to July 2015. A list of all the govt. and govt. aided school and colleges in Chiraigaon block was taken from District Inspector of school and Kashi Vidyapeeth University, Varanasi respectively. A list of all classes (from 9 th standard to under-graduate) from these schools and colleges were prepared. From the list, a total of 19 classes were selected randomly according to the student’s strength of the institutions. In order to reach the required sample size (which is obtained by prevalence as per pilot study in the same area on male youth students) i.e. 559, 30 students were further selected by simple random sampling technique from all the selected 19 classes (included from 9 th standard to under-graduate). Thus, finally a total of 570 students