Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Thaawarchand Gehlot visited the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC) of AIIMS located at Ghaziabad on May 19. He was accompanied by Anita Agnihotri, secretary and Ghazala Meenai, joint secretary of the Department of Social Justice and Empowerment. The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment is the nodal ministry of the government of India for Drug Demand Reduction in the country and is implementing a central sector scheme for prevention and control of drug abuse by supporting more than 350 Integrated Rehabilitation Centres for Addicts (IRCAs).
NDDTC of AIIMS is the nodal agency for treatment, training and research on addictive disorders under the Drug De-Addiction Programme (DDAP) of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, government of India. The Centre, established in 1988, provides evidence based medical and psycho-social treatment for addicts of all kinds of intoxicating substances through daily OPDs and a 50-bedded ward. It also runs special clinics for drug-using women, children and adolescents, tobacco users and patients with co-morbid psychiatric illnesses. In addition to its main facility located in Ghaziabad, NDDTC also runs three community clinics located in various under-served areas of Delhi which provide free treatment to highly vulnerable populations such as homeless drug users. The Centre caters to alcohol and drug using patients from several north and central Indian states and provides treatment to more than 5000 new patients and has more than 40,000 follow-up patient visits each year.
The minister was given a tour of the Centre including and interacted with some patients. of drug users.