More than four per cent of students consume alcohol. Half of them have started to drink alcohol before the age of 14, according to Global School Based Student Health Survey conducted by the Ministry of Health and Sports.

An official of the Ministry of Health and Sports said: “The number of hospitalized mental health patients has increased nationwide. The number of hospitalized patients increased from over 36,000 in 2012 to over 86,000 in 2017. The number of hospital patients  increased from 2.4 per cent to three per cent. Most of them are linked to mental health problems caused by alcohol consumption.”

“Alcohol addiction which is one of the non-communicable diseases, increased around 2.5 fold from 2013 to 2018. It becomes a health problem for our country. Due to alcohol, there are quarrels and traffic accidents. Alcohol consumption accounts for more than five per cent of the various deaths around the globe. One in seven people who die, aged between 20 and 30 is linked to alcohol consumption,” the official added.

More than 3.3 million world populations die as a result of harmful use of alcohol every year. More than half of them die of non-communicable diseases including cancer, according to the 2018 WHO’s report.

Due to non-communicable diseases, 41 million world populations die every year. It accounts for around 71 per cent of the total deaths worldwide. Around 15 million people aged between 30 and 69 die every year. About 85 per cent of  untimely deaths are from low-income developing countries. The main cause of deaths are linked to heart and cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic lung diseases, diabetics etc, according to the Ministry of Health and Sports.

The ministry will create a separate plan to more effectively prevent and control the main causes of the non-communicable diseases.