It is not unusual to see a drug addict being looked down upon as a criminal and also treated as such, as our society is quick to pass judgment, and blame and condemn both the addict and the peddler. Hence, it is heartening to see that in the Bandipora district of Jammu and Kashmir, drug addicts are being treated as victims and provided all possible help to come out of their addiction. This is the reason why their ‘Nasha Mukt Bharat’ campaign has been extremely successful in the last two years, creating mass awareness about drugs, its effects, and rehabilitation. This campaign was launched by 2014-batch IAS officer Owais Ahmed, who is the Deputy Commissioner of Bandipora.

Under his leadership, the district administration launched a massive awareness campaign against the drug menace to uproot this evil from society and save the youth from drugs and the peddlers. It is a multi-pronged programme for a drug-free society. Till now, more than 17,000 outreach programmes have been conducted under the campaign.

Indian Masterminds interacted with Mr. Owais Ahmed, the Deputy Commissioner of Bandipora, to get more details about the initiative.

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NASHA MUKT BHARAT

There was a time when Bandipora was facing major drugs-related issues, with youngsters falling prey to drugs and huge amount of contraband substances getting confiscated from many places on a regular basis. A worried administration swung into action and launched the Nasha Mukt Bharat initiative. The campaign created awareness, conducted sports activities, de-addiction counselling, oath-taking ceremony against drugs, debates, carried out mass destruction of drugs, and many more.

CREATING MASS AWARENESS

Mass awareness campaigna are the most important part of the Nasha Mukt Bharat initiative. These campaigns especially target the youth to keep them away from drugs by channelising their energies towards positive and constructive activities. For this, social media is leveraged to the maximum to spread awareness, and special care is taken to send out the message that addicts are victims, not criminals. At the same time, it is sounded out that there is a cure to get rid of this addiction and one can come out of it comfortably through treatment at the de-addiction cells in hospitals.

While saying that the main focus of this campaign remains getting the public involved in its drive against drugs, Mr. Ahmed said, “A new dedicated center for de-addiction is also going to be built in the district. At the same time, police is keeping up the pressure on the big gangs and drug peddlers by pursuing them relentlessly.”

SENDING MESSAGE THROUGH SPORTS

Talking about the sports events, he said that they mostly organise bike and car rallies. “Last year I led the bike rally. These rallies attract a lot of youth. We share our messages with the participants and they carry the same with them wherever they go. This is how our messages spread.”

The aim of such roadshows is to spread the message of drug abuse to every nook and corner of the district in order to make Bandipora drug free and to make participants aware about substance abuse and ways to get rid of this menace and eradicate it from society.

UPROOTING THE MENACE

Another part of the campaign is the destruction of cannabis. Teams go about destroying any cannabis they find, from roadsides to any publicly accessible place where the grass grows naturally. This cleaning up is done regularly.

“Apart from this, our target remains the children, because if they understand, they will stay away from drugs as adults,” said Mr. Ahmed. Counselors have been appointed to help out in this regard. The administration has also circulated a number where the youth can call to inform about any drug victim. The caller’s identity is kept a secret. “After getting any information, the administration works to help the victim with de-addiction. They first start counseling the victim, and if needed, then get them admitted in a de-addiction cell. Till now, more than 100 people got helped because of such calls,” Mr. Ahmed said, adding that the district administration is committed to provide every facility to the youth to channelize their energy towards a positive direction to keep them away from drug abuse and other social evils.