Why Punjab survey on drug addiction has led to fears of undercount

For the last two weeks, Jaskirat Singh, a government school teacher in Punjab, has been going to a nearby village every afternoon after work.

The teacher from Amritsar knocks on doors, asking people hundreds of questions. “On average, I tick off eight households from my list every day,” Singh, who is in his 50s, told Scroll. “Then I return home exhausted around sunset,”

Singh is one of 28,000 government employees deputed by the Punjab government to conduct the state’s first ever Drug and Socio-Economic Survey – an exercise meant to quantify drug addiction in the border state and assess the socio-economic and educational background of those dependent on drugs.

Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, while announcing the survey in April, had said that the aim was to “understand the drug problem and then make targeted policies which will have better outcomes”.

But, on the ground, enumerators like Singh are running into hurdles.

In the last 15 days, the government school teacher in Amritsar has surveyed 120 households. “Only two or three families conceded that some of their family members were into drugs,” he said.

The survey’s format makes the majority of respondents evade questions related to drugs, Singh said. “Which mother will reveal to a stranger that her son or daughter is into drugs?”...

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