ELECTION 99
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Drug abuse to be tackled on a war footing in northeast

Nitin Gogoi in Guwahati

A $ 2.3 million community-based drug-demand reduction programme has been launched in India's northeast by the United Nations Drug Control Programme to counter the rising drug menace in the region.

The project will be implemented through community-based institutions and Non Governmental Organisations. It will target two million people, out of which 55,000 are drug addicts. In fact over 10,000 among the drug addicts belong to the high risk group who have either contracted HIV or are prone to the disease. The project elaborately named as the 'Community-wide drug demand reduction in the northeastern states of India -- 1999-2003' will be implemented in collaboration with the ministry of social justice and empowerment.

The International Labour Organisation will be the associated agency behind the implementation of the project, a Special News Letter for the northeast, published by the Union home ministry says. The project, according to the newsletter, will establish a regional resource training centre to train manpower engaged in the drug demand reduction programmes. It will train youth co-ordinators to provide life-skill education for reducing risk taking behaviour related to drug abuse, HIV and AIDS.

A series of de-addiction-cum-rehabilitation centres and community extension centres will also be set up under the project to undertake the preventive de-addiction and rehabilitation services. At least 25 such centres are proposed to be set up across the region, comprising the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura, by the end of the first phase.

The project, conceived by UNDCP after an extensive survey carried out throughout the region, is aimed at 20,000 drug addicts who will be provided detoxification services. Out of these 20,000 drug abusers, the project aims to provide vocational rehabilitation services to nearly 5,000, the newsletter said. The implementation will be mainly done through community-based organisations which have wide-reaching influence in the close-knit communities of the region.

The project, say officials in the region, has come not a moment too soon. In terms of numbers, the HIV/AIDS cases in the northeast may not be as high as in states like Maharashtra or Andhra Pradesh but given the region's proximity to the infamous 'Golden Triangle' there is certainly an inherent potential for these cases to rise alarmingly over the next few years.

Frequent changes of drug trafficking routes, prohibition, involvement of both militant groups and security forces and burgeoning unemployment in the north eastern region have thrown a new challenge to law enforcing agencies and health managers.

Despite the existence of various laws and the presence of enforcing agencies to curb the easy availability of psychotropic substances in the region, of late two killer drugs -- ephedrine (a tranquilizer) and plasmo-proxyvon have pervaded every nook and corner of the region since such drugs are available at an affordable premium than the costly drugs such as heroine, marijuana, and others. The UNDCP project is aimed at preventing the further spread of the already rampant drug abuse.

Tell us what you think of this report