All the tireless efforts put in by the Mehsana administration to fight drug abuse finally brought good news from the national capital, when this district in Gujarat was recognized as the Best Performing District by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) and Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB).Mehsana District Collector Udit Agrawal was recently felicitated in New Delhi for running a successful campaign against drugs. In conversation with Indian Masterminds, Mr. Agarwal spoke at length about the combined efforts that made this felicitation possible.
AMONG TOP 20
Mehsana was nominated among Top 20 best performing districts out of 272 for its successful fight against drug addiction. Collector Udit Agarwal said, “Under the Drug Free India initiative, an intensive campaign was undertaken in which various interest groups came forward and joined hands with us. Our entire focus was primarily on spreading awareness among people and we got very good responses from elected representatives as well.”
In the National Round Review of the Joint Action Plan for the Prevention of Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Children, the performance of the district was encouraging.
THE JOINT ACTION PLAN
The Joint Action Plan was primarily prepared by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Government of India, in 272 districts across India, which come under narcotics sensitive zones, from 15th August 2020. The district plan was prepared by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights under ‘Protection of Children from Drugs and Other Drugs’.
Talking about these action plans, Mr. Agrawal said, “To spread awareness, we involved students of schools and colleges with us. We organised online quiz competitions, oratory competitions, painting, slogan competition etc., to engage them with us. The main focus was to involve girls so that they become our mediator while conveying our messages to their homes. The drugs issue is not limited to an individual, it’s a problem of the whole family, the whole community. Even during the lockdown period, we conducted webinars to connect to young people.”
NASHA MUKTI RATH YATRA
In the six months-long campaign, various experiments were carried out, Nasha Mukti Rath Yatra being one of them.
Mr. Agrawal said, “While organizing seminars and conducting virtual sessions was one part of the campaign, the other part was to reach directly to the people. To fulfill this purpose, we initiated Nasha Mukti Rath Yatra in 210 villages in the district. We tried to directly communicate with the people and make them aware of the perils of any kind of addiction. The campaign is still going on and we have seen a big change, as per our expectations.”
A LONG WAY TO GO
The worst affected are children as their whole future would be at stake because of drugs abuse. This is why, the district administration worked vigorously to counsel and rehabilitate child victims of drugs and laid out proper childcare guidelines for observation homes, central jail, medical counselors, and other stakeholders to follow. Village leaders as well as many voluntary organisations came forward to help and are still doing so.
Because of the successful fight against drugs abuse, District Collector Mehsana Udit Agrawal was honored on 2nd March 2022 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. Mr. Agrawal congratulated team Mehsana for receiving this honour as it was collective efforts that ultimately brought the desired results.
