Pubdate: Sat, 23 Aug 2003
Source: Times of India, The (India)
Copyright: Bennett, Coleman & Co. Ltd. 2003
Contact:  http://www.timesofindia.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/453
Author: Shivendra Kumar

DE-ADDICTION DICTION GOES DOWN WELL

The University of Delhi under its department of Adult Continuing Education &
Extension in collaboration with National Institute of Social Defence,
Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment conducted a five-day course on drug
abuse prevention recently.

The programme was meant for college NSS teachers, adult education
functionaries and peer educators of DU. The aim was to sensitise the
teachers and adult education functionaries on drug-abuse prevention and
education.  The course was divided into five parts: Drug use, drug abuse and
drug dependence courses, symptoms and prevention of drugs, harm reduction,
rehabilitation, counselling and family support, field visits in
rehabilitation and de-toxication centre.

On the first day, Dr. A.B. Chaudhary, consultant and guest of honour,
interacted with the participants on understanding drugs and drug abuse. In
the second session Dr. Chaudhary deliberated on the implications of
drug-abuse. He touched on behavioural issues, psychological issues, role of
family, drug-abuse and HIV/AIDS, youth and drug-abuse. He said that majority
take to drugs out of curiosity and fashion. He emphasised the role of the
university system, counsellors and NGOs in prevention of the abuse.

Pramod Kumar, programme manager, Mamta, an NGO, discussed street children
and drug-abuse. He said drug-abuse in rural areas was due to illiteracy,
poverty and less educational opportunities. Dr. Rajesh, programme convenor,
spoke on drug-abuse and counselling services. He stressed on the need for
mass awareness programme. Many speakers emphasised on the need to implement
the various activities at grassroot levels and suggested trained volunteers
work in urban and world clusters.

Shantanu Choudhary's  speech was on identifying an addict. Various symptoms
or signs  -  both physical and behavioral -- which would help identify an
individual as an addict. The signs for identification ranged from poor
physical hygiene and medical problems to several behavioural aberrations
such as compulsive lying, indulging in petty thefts and strained
relationship with family, friends and neighbours.

Dr. Sunita Kumar, an applied psychologist, spoke on how addiction is
perceived by the society and the elements that should make an effective
prevention programme. She proposed three days of prevention programme.
Intrinsic motivation and will power of the addict to escape addiction were
emphasised by Dr. Kumar. Thereafter, a play was organised for the
participants. Based on a real life incident, it depicted how an addict tries
to influence a counsellor into providing him drugs and the skill of a
counsellor in handling such challenging cases.

Sunil Vatsayan, director, Caring Foundation, shared his experiences with
10,000 odd drug-addicts, whom he has counseled in his career. His informal
and lucid style of presentation went down well with the audiences. He cited
an example to drive home his point: A pigeon enters a room through an
exhaust fan and gets trapped in it.

The people in the room despite their willingness to extricate him from the
murderous whirring blade seethe in impotent rage at their inability to do
so. He asked the trainee's reaction/response in such a situation and then
used the pigeon metaphor to describe the dilemma of a drug addict in our
society.

He felt that something cogent and coherent needs to be done. He was of the
opinion that the agents should conduct counselling session with the family
of the addict.  He also discussed the gender issues in the drug abuse and
prevention and said that till date not much attention has been paid to this
issue and only an isolated centre for women is being run presently. He
focussed on the specific action plan.

"The universities should try to form specific committees in their respective
college/campus for the purpose and carry out a resource mapping exercise,''
urged Vatsayan.

Among students, personality development and life skills training must be
imparted. In this context, Vatsayan told the trainees about this year's
theme for the International Day against Drug Abuse and Prevention, which is:
Let's talk about drugs.
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MAP posted-by: Josh