The Government of India Commemorates the World Drug Day

On the 26th of June, 2009 the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, (MSJE) organized an evening long event to mark this year's World Drug Day. The event was held in the Capital, New Delhi and bought together different stake holders from the field of substance abuse prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and law enforcement. Mr. Mukul Wasnik, Hon'ble Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment presided over the programme attended by Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Hon'ble Minister for Health and Family Welfare, as Chief Guest, Mr. D. Napoleon, Hon'ble Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, as Guest of Honor and graced by the presence of Mr. KN Acharya, Secretary, MSJE and Ms. Sangeeta Gairola, Additional Secretary, MSJE.

The evening began with the reading of UNODC's Executive Directors message on the World Drug Day by Ms. Cristina Albertin, Representative United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Regional Office for South Asia, UNODC, ROSA. This was followed by inspiring addresses from the various Ministers, once again indicative of the Government's commitment and focus to mitigate the issue of substance abuse. In his speech, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, Hon'ble Minister for Health and Family Welfare laid emphasis on the importance of creating awareness on prevention of substance abuse and the need to look at the issue of drugs as a health concern just as serious as any other. Mr. Mukul Wasnik, Hon'ble Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, mentioned the Government's commitment to update data on the trends and patterns of drug abuse in the country with the planning of a subsequent survey to the one released in 2004. He congratulated UNODC for the pioneering work done in this field and expressed his appreciation for the mass media campaign that was developed by UNODC in partnership with the MSJE, 'I Decide I won't take drugs'. He said the need of the hour was to reach many more people with a simple message, which the campaign slogan is a concrete example off. Mr. Wasnik also mentioned that his Ministry was working to reduce the risk to vulnerable sections of population placing 'youth' as his first priority.

Towards this objective, he invited Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad to release a set of modules that shall assist school teachers to create awareness on substance abuse and encourage children to say, 'No'. These modules have been developed by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC in partnership with MSJE as part of a co-curricular programme on substance abuse prevention in schools. The programme is under a joint UNODC and MSJE project titled, 'Empowering communities towards prevention of drugs and HIV in India'. So far 200 schools have been reached under the programme and in collaboration with the Government there is hope to reach many more schools in the coming year.

Using the 26th of June, also as an occasion to showcase the nature of efforts that various organizations are making, UNODC, National Institute of Social Defence (NISD) and a few other key NGO's were invited to put up stalls. Ministers and participants interacted with representatives from these organizations, going through publications developed and expressing their appreciation. The evening concluded with a vibrant performance by 'Dhwani', a group of artists who combined Indian classical dance with contemporary dance to portray the havoc and loss caused by substance can cause and re-enforcing the pledge, 'My life, My community, No place for drugs.'