​Govt aims to declare 100 most vulnerable high burden districts as nearly ‘drug free’ a year from now

NEW DELHI: A year from now the ministry of social justice and empowerment hopes to declare at least a 100 districts out of 272 most vulnerable high burden districts as nearly “drug free”.
Under the drugs free national campaign, the government has put in place around 11 parameters to evaluate the measures taken to combat drug use by the districts.
From taking into account the cases related to substance abuse in a district to establishing if the district has ensured there are no tobacco or alcohol shops within 100 metres of schools, colleges and university - each district will be tested on impact on ground before being assigned the nearly “drug free” tag. The use of the word “near” is cited as a matter of caution as officials feel that on the ground it is possible to achieve a situation of making a space “almost free” of the menace by weeding out the risk factors.
On Saturday, observed as the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, secretary social justice, R Subrahmanyam, said the government hopes that as a part of the celebration of 75 years of Independence the ministry will be able to declare at least 100 districts out of 272 drug free in keeping with the definition and parameters set out for the assessment.
The ‘Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan’ (Drugs-Free India Campaign) was flagged off on August 15 last year across 272 districts of the country found to be most vulnerable based on the data available from various sources. The focal points of the campaign are preventive, mass education and sensitisation, capacity building of service providers, positive partnership with educational institutions, and augmentation of treatment, rehabilitation and counselling facilities.
To see how far the districts have come since the programme was launched 10 months ago, the MoSJE is seeking regular reports from the districts and the measures will be assessed on around 11 parameters like available treatment facilities and the number of people who benefited from de-addiction programmes. One of the suggested parameters will assess if at least 75% educational institutions and hostels in the district have been declared 'Drug Free' institutions.
Similarly, at least 50% villages in a district will have to declare themselves as 'Drug Free'. Besides this all higher educational institutions in district should have drug abuse prevention policy.