Substance use by child labourers.

The present study highlights substance use patterns of 300 child labourers from 6 slums in Sural city and identifies the microsocial and macrosocial stressors which initiate and perpetuate their substance use. It was observed that 135 (45%) of the child labourers had used some substance with a mean of 1.5 substances used per child. Tobacco smoking was the most common form of substance abuse followed by tobacco chewing, snuff, cannabis and opium. This study highlights an urgent need for the containment of substance abuse by these vulnerable early initiators.