HFADA lauds state government’s initiative for de-addiction
Himachal Forum Against Drug Abuse (HFADA), a collective platform of 57 organizations from across the state united against drug abuse, organized an important stakeholders’ consultation meeting on the issue of drug de-addiction and drug de-addiction in the seminar hall of the Social Justice and Empowerment Department. The meeting was chaired by former senior administrative officer Deepak Sanan.
He underscored the relevance of HFADA and called for concerted efforts to address the growing drug problem. He commended the Chief Minister-led state government’s priority for the Drug-Free Himachal Campaign and the campaign against drug abuse. He also expressed concern about the growing youth addiction to drugs and the increasing number of deaths from drug overdoses.
In this consultation meeting, ESOMSA Director Sumit Khimta, retired former Director Hans Raj Chauhan, MNREGA Social Audit Director Ravindra Sharma, Additional Director Dr. Bhavna, Panchayati Raj Department Additional Director Dr. Neelam, Health Department Deputy Director along with representatives of seven departments, about two dozen social, religious, cultural institutions and public organizations actively participated.
In this consultation meeting, after the presentation on prevention intervention by Vijay Kumar, Executive Director from Gunjan Sanstha, the technical partner, all the participants shared their experiences and told how drug addiction is having a deep and negative impact on the youth, families and society.
During the meeting, it was emphasized that drug addiction is not just a legal problem, but it is a serious disease and a social challenge, to deal with which joint participation of the government, non-governmental organizations, health department, educational institutions and every section of the society is necessary.
At the end of the meeting, Satyavan Pundir from HFADA, with everyone’s consent, proposed to submit a five-point memorandum on preventive strategy for effective implementation of the drug de-addiction campaign.
