Participants with resource persons and officials during the Drug Free India campaign held at Bhandari Town hall on February 19.
Wokha, February 20 (MExN): In line with the ongoing campaign towards a Drug Free India, the Social Welfare Department in collaboration with ARK Foundation and Bethesda YWC organised a stakeholders’ sensitization workshop on substance use-prevention and treatment at Bhandari Town hall on February 19.
The workshop was attended by stakeholders from various civil society organisations, church, students, NGO partners and district administration of Bhandari town. It was chaired by Peter Yanthan, CDPO, Bhandari.
One of the resource persons, Maong Jamir highlighted the manner in which the society looks upon the person who is into substance abuse. He pondered “whether our effort is to stop alcohol or alcoholism.” There are many approaches applied to stop drug addiction and alcoholism such as spiritual counselling, prayer centre, traditional lock ups, disowning, imprisonment, fines, expelling, capital punishment, rehabilitation, NLTP act, and community Detox camps, while some of these are good, most of them are not practical and has proved futile, he observed.
He also shared on the various roles of the churches, village councils, government departments and NGOs to prevent further and new entry into drug use and treatment of the already affected persons and their families.
In a PowerPoint presentation, Ketho Angami shared an overview of drug addiction in Nagaland. “Drug addiction is still a reality and Bhandari area also has significant number of drug users,” he remarked.
Exhorting the gathering, SDO (C) Bhandari in his opening remark mentioned that Bhandari been a hub centre for many socio economic activities and substance use is a major concern in the area. The situation was challenging during the COVID-19 lockdown, he stated.
WC Humtsoe shared his experience of how massive awareness and sensitization programmes were conducted during the early years when addiction was at its peak in Wokha district. He lamented that denial of addiction by the individual himself and also their families deters people to seek treatment. He sought the support of all the stakeholders of Bhandari area and the department to continue working together in addressing the issue of drug addiction.
In the concluding remark, Wango Langsym shared about the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction under the MoSJE, which is been implemented by the NISD to be carried out from 2018-2023.
The action plan work towards primary prevention with the student’s community through the educational and allied department/bodies. Since last year, a national campaign towards Drug Free India was also rolled out in 273 states where in Nagaland, three states namely Kohima, Dimapur and Mon are also included. He urged the schools and educational institution in Bhandari to imitate such awareness programs in their respective set ups as a shared responsibility.
CDPO Bhandari, TY Peter Yanthan, chaired the programme.
