The Supreme Court on Wednesday set a four-month deadline for the Centre to prepare a national action plan to curb drug, alcohol and substance abuse among children after it found the menace to be widespread among the younger generation in the country.
Passing a slew of decisions on a petition filed by NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), a three-judge Bench of the Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur, found that India with the highest child population across the world with over 44 crore has an adolescent population of 24 crore, which is vulnerable to substance abuse. But sadly, the Government has no mechanism to tackle the issue nor is there any reliable data to ensure help can be reached to the needy children.
Taking the first step in this direction, the Bench, also comprising of Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud said, “Protecting children from wide-spread prevalence of substance abuse is one of the biggest policy challenges facing India. “The Court went on to direct the Centre to build a national database of victims of substance abuse for purposes of their rehabilitation, treatment and counseling. The Court even asked the Ministry of Human Resources Development to adopt specific content in the school curriculum as part of the New Education Policy (NEP) that explains the ill effects of drugs and alcohol.
Hailing the decision of the Court as a landmark step in prevention of substance abuse among children, founder of BBA, Kailash Satyarthi said, “Trafficking and drug abuse, inherently linked to each other, are the most prevalent forms of organised crime in the world that violate fundamental rights of our children. The judgment of the Supreme Court will go a long way in building a safer environment for our children.”
Although the issue had many dimensions, the Court focused on a national action plan, database and adoption of ill effects of substance abuse in school curriculum. The Centre had informed Court that it was in process of formulating a national policy on drug demand reduction which will include a system of accreditation of de-addiction centres. On the national survey, the Government had submitted that extent, pattern and trend of drug abuse is being studied by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.