The Government is in its final stages of completing the draft of the national policy for drug demand reduction. The Social Justice and Empowerment Ministry had invited suggestions from stakeholders before finalising the draft which aims to bring down drug abuse in the country.
“The drug problem is adversely affecting the social fabric of the country. Addiction to drugs not only affects the individuals involved, but also disrupts their families and the whole society,” said Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot, who was addressing a Press conference to highlight his Ministry’s achievements in the first 100 days.
“As we know the problem is severe in States of Punjab and Manipur and we need to find ways to curb the problem at the earliest,” he said. Gehlot admitted that the problem was acute and growing steadily across the country, particularly among the youth.
“We do not have any accurate data to suggest the actual number of drug users in the country so it is very difficult to plan and implement any policy. The 2001 data is obsolete and does not mean much as the sample size was barely 40,000, from which estimations were made,” said the Minister.
“To get more definite figures on the magnitude of the problem of dug addiction, Ministry had outsourced a survey on addicts in Punjab and Manipur, which is also in its final stages,” he said.
The 2001 survey carried out by MSJE with United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated that approximately 7.5 crore Indians were addicts. The Minister said, “The survey estimations were faulty and the problem at hand was at least 10 times graver.” Gehlot said that the NSSO is also working on an extensive survey across Punjab, Manipur and Maharashtra to estimate the number of drug users in the country.
Also, in keeping with its commitment to stub the problem, the Ministry has assured Punjab Government its assistance in providing for 59 Integrated Rehabilitation Centres for addicts across all districts in the States.
Ministry of Social Justice is also readying up a model legislation on prevention of beggary. “We are committed to ending the menace of beggary. We are working on a scheme for rehabilitating beggars,” said Gehlot.
The Minister said that he had approved financial assistance to the Government of NCT of Delhi for conducting a survey on mapping and size estimation of street children.