The Goa State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (GSCPCR), launched one of the largest drug abuse prevention drives in school settings on Tuesday, June 27, at Institute Menezes Braganza at the State Level Workshop on Prediction, Protection and Prevention, in the presence of Shivendu Bhusan, IPS, SP Anti Narcotic Cell, Shailesh Zingade, Director of Education, Ajit Panchwadkar, Director of Social Welfare, Sindhu Prabhudessai, Assistant Director of Education (Academics), and Peter F. Borges, Chairperson, Goa State Commission for Protection of Child Rights and Members of the Commission.
Attended by 370 school nodal teachers of Prahari Clubs, which are clubs to ensure a drug-free campus by imposing a total ban on the possession or consumption or use of drugs and alcohol by students at the school, within or outside the campus. A large range of preventive programmes will be promoted through the clubs to prevent children from using tobacco, alcohol, and drugs.
Speaking on the occasion, Shivendu Bhusan, highlighted the need for coordinated efforts between drug demand reduction and supply reduction. Dr Ravindra Agrawal, President, Psychiatric Society of Goa, stressed on the various positive approaches that the clubs should adopt to create a safe environment in schools. Dr Rajesh Dhume, Senior Psychiatrist, highlighted those consequences for young adolescents, their families, and communities, and Dr Kashyap Bandodkar, talked on tobacco consumption as an epidemic of epic proportion, while highlighting the vaping and e-cigarette problem, where a new form of nicotine addiction is catching up among young students, and with added flavours and attractive designs, adolescents were the soft targets.
Speaking on sustaining the prevention programme and strengthening it, the Chairperson cited some mandatory actions for the schools and list of illustrative innovative ideas and actions that could be implemented as a part of a sustained action plan. He called on all the nodal teachers to have a yearly action plan to strengthen the prevention efforts so that the substance abuse problem among students can be contained.
All the nodal teachers, in unison, asked the Commission to urgently get the ‘Vimal’ advertisements removed from school buses.
The Commission announced plans for capacity building of stakeholders, i.e., counsellors, and nodal teachers, to create a cadre of professionals to provide a range of substance use prevention and early intervention services and support and formulation, and adaptation of the school drug policy to set normative values and expectations for student behaviour, as well as to document procedures for dealing with drug-related incidents in schools.
