Kerala may be ranked after Punjab in cases related to Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act but the statistics do not include abuse of whitener, cough syrup, and other inhalants; only of the regular narcotic substances, P. Vijayan, Inspector General of Police (Administration), who is also the nodal officer of the Kerala Anti-Narcotic Special Action Force (KANSAF), says.
He was delivering the keynote address at a State-level stakeholder workshop on ‘Prevention of substance abuse among children’ here on Saturday. The workshop was organised by the Don Bosco Veedu Society and Childline.
More action needed
Mr. Vijayan said there was a huge demand for narcotic substances in the State, and consequently a steady supply to meet it. Awareness campaigns alone would not help but there was need for early identification. Cases should be addressed through counselling or mentoring. There was a need for de-addiction centres that were child-friendly and also the need to divert students’ energy into creative activities or sports. He also highlighted the futility of sending children to juvenile homes, the conditions of which were hardly conducive. Chairperson of Kerala State Commission for Protection of Child Rights (KeSCPCR) P. Suresh, who inaugurated the seminar said, parents put too much pressure on children to do well, driving them towards drug abuse.
Child expert K.K. Subair, who moderated a group discussion, said a NIMHANS workshop on challenges faced by children saw Kerala highlight the issue of substance abuse among students, unlike other States that focussed on child labour and begging.
Kerala, which in the 80s was ranked behind many States in drug abuse, had become the second State after Punjab in drug-related cases. A study among 402 professional students in Thrissur had found that 40% of them, including girls, abused drugs. Of the 1,056 children in conflict with law who were under the State government’s Kaval project for their reintegration into society, 417 had admitted to being addicts and 83 had been sent for de-addiction. This indicated the need to look at the drug abuse problem in the context of other problems.
Fr. Thomas P.D, Director, Don Bosco Veedu Society, presented a study on drug dependency among schoolchildren in the district. The survey among 1,800 schoolchildren in urban, rural and coastal areas found that 28.7% of schoolchildren in the district had abused drugs, while 39.3% of the students surveyed wanted to use drugs.