Saumitra Khan lone Muslim face from BJP, representation of community rises to 27 in LS

Agencies

May 27, 2019

New Delhi, May 27: Saumitra Khan, who won from Bishnupur Lok Sabha seat in West Bengal, will be the lone Muslim lawmaker from BJP in the 17th Lok Sabha and is among the 27 parliamentarians from the community who will be representing the new House.

The number of Muslim MPs in the lower house has marginally risen to 27, compared to 22 in the outgoing.

The BJP won 303 seats in the recently concluded elections. Along with its allies, the party crossed 353 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha.

Among the NDA, Lok Janshakti Party's (LJP) Mahbub Ali Kaiser is another Muslim candidate who won from Khagaria Lok Sabha seat in Bihar.

The remaining 25 Muslim members are from the opposition parties.

In Uttar Pradesh, six Muslim MPs have made their way to the Lok Sabha. In the 2014 general elections, no candidate from the community emerged victorious.

While Afzal Ansari from Ghazipur, Fazalur Rahman from Saharanpur and Danish Ali from Amroha won on Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket, Azam Khan, Shafique Rehman Barq and ST Hasan emerged victorious in Rampur, Sambhal and Moradabad from Samajwadi Party (SP). The two parties had contested the elections together.

In West Bengal, five MPs -- four from Trinamool Congress and one from Congress -- have been elected to the new House. The TMC candidates are -- Nusrat Jahan (Basirhat), Abu Taher Khan (Murshidabad), Sajda Ahmed (Uluberia) and Khalilur Rehman (Jangipur).

Aparupa Poddar, who converted to Islam and is now known as Afrin Ali, also found her way to the new House after winning from Arambagh seat.

With five Muslim MPs, the TMC has the most number of lawmakers from the community that will represent the new House.

Congress' Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury won from Maldaha Dakshin Lok Sabha seat.

In Jammu and Kashmir, National Conference (NC) leader Farooq Abdullah retained his Srinagar seat, while Hasnain Masoodi (Anantnag-NC) and Mohammad Akbar Lone (Baramulla-NC) too emerged victorious from their respective constituencies.

Mohammed Faizal of the Nationalist Congress Party won the lone parliamentary seat in Lakshadweep.

Mohammad Sadique of Congress also won the Faridkot seat from Punjab. Indian Union Muslim League's K Navas Kani also emerged victorious from Ramanathapuram Lok Sabha constituency in Tamil Nadu.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) supremo Asaduddin Owaisi, who won from the Hyderabad Lok Sabha seat for the fourth consecutive time, will get another five-year-term to represent his constituency in the 17th Lok Sabha.

Apart from Owaisi, another Muslim candidate, Imtiaz Jaleel, too emerged victorious from Aurangabad Lok Sabha constituency.

Muslim representation in the 16th Lok Sabha had dipped to 22, the lowest figure so far. In the 15th Lok Sabha, 33 members of the community were elected.

In 1980, 49 Muslim members were elected to the Lok Sabha, which was the highest number of the community representing the Lower House of the Parliament.

Muslim representation in the Lok Sabha was the lowest during the 1952 general elections when 11 members from the community were elected to the Lower House of the Parliament.

Comments

Add new comment

Coastaldigest.com reserves the right to delete or block any comments.
Coastaldigset.com is not responsible for its readers’ comments.
Comments that are abusive, incendiary or irrelevant are strictly prohibited.
Please use a genuine email ID and provide your name to avoid reject.

Average age of school children picking up drugs, smoking habit in 10 Indian cities around 13 years!

News Network

December 13,2025

New Delhi: School-going children are picking up drug and smoking habits and engaging in consumption of alcohol, with the average age of introduction to such harmful substances found to be around 13 years, suggesting a need for earlier interventions as early as primary school, a multi-city survey by AIIMS-Delhi said.

The findings also showed substance use increased in higher grades, with grade XI/XII students two times more likely to report use of substances when compared with grade VIII students. This emphasised the importance of continued prevention and intervention through middle and high school.

The study led by Dr Anju Dhawan of AIIMS's National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, published in the National Medical Journal of India this month, looks at adolescent substance use across diverse regions.

The survey included 5,920 students from classes 8, 9, 11 and 12 in urban government, private and rural schools across 10 cities -- Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Delhi, Dibrugarh, Hyderabad, Imphal, Jammu, Lucknow, Mumbai, and Ranchi. The data were collected between May 2018 and June 2019.

The average age of initiation for any substance was 12.9 (2.8) years. It was lowest for inhalants (11.3 years) followed by heroin (12.3 years) and opioid pharmaceuticals (without prescription; 12.5 years).

Overall, 15.1 per cent of participants reported lifetime use, 10.3 per cent reported past year use, and 7.2 per cent reported use in the past month of any substance, the study found.

The most common substances used in the past year, after tobacco (4 per cent) and alcohol (3.8 per cent), were opioids (2.8 per cent), followed by cannabis (2 per cent) and inhalants (1.9 per cent). Use of non-prescribed pharmaceutical opioids was most common among opioid users (90.2 per cent).

On being asked, 'Do you think this substance is easily available for a person of your age' separately for each substance category, nearly half the students (46.3 per cent) endorsed that tobacco products and more than one-third of the students (36.5 per cent) agreed that a person of their age can easily procure alcohol products.

Similarly, for Bhang (21.9 per cent), ganja/charas (16.1 per cent), inhalants (15.2 per cent), sedatives (13.7 per cent), opium and heroin (10 per cent each), the students endorsed that these can be easily procured.

About 95 per cent of the children, irrespective of their grade, agreed with the statement that 'drug use is harmful'.

The rates of substance use (any) among boys were significantly higher than those of girls for substance use (ever), use in the past year and use in the past 30 days. Compared to grade VIII students, grade IX students were more likely, and grade XI/XII students were twice as likely to have used any substance (ever).

The likelihood of past-year use of any substance was also higher for grade IX students and for grade XI/XII students as compared to grade VIII students.

About 40 per cent of students mentioned that they had a family member who used tobacco or alcohol each. The use of cannabis (any product) and opioid (any product) by a family member was reported by 8.2 per cent and 3.9 per cent of students, respectively, while the use of other substances, such as inhalants/sedatives by family was 2-3 per cent, the study found.

A relatively smaller percentage of students reported use of tobacco or alcohol among peers as compared to among family members, while a higher percentage reported inhalants, sedatives, cannabis or opioid use among peers.

Children using substances (past year) compared to non-users reported significantly higher any substance use by their family members and peers.

There were 25.7 per cent students who replied 'yes' to the question 'conflicts/fights often occur in your family'. Most students also replied affirmatively to 'family members are aware of how their time is being spent' and 'damily members are aware of with whom they spend their time'.

Comments