Shillong, May 9: Social Welfare Minister Paul Lyngdoh on Friday announced that over 100 teachers are all set to be trained to become ‘counsellors’ within a span of ten months to address the issue of drug menace from an embryonic stage of student’s life.
Addressing media persons, Lyngdoh said the government through the department of social welfare is going all out in its effort to contain and eventually eradicate drugs and the menace of drug trafficking from the state of Meghalaya.
“We have adopted a multi-pronged approach which is bearing results today as I indicated to you last time that the addiction rate has gone down by about 20 percent but this does not mean that we rest on our laurels,” he added.
Stating the department is committed to further enhancing its effort to contain the drug menace, Lyngdoh said, “One of the major initiatives that we have adopted today is that we will start by catering and addressing this menace from the embryonic stage meaning we do not allow, we make efforts not to allow our young teens to be fascinated to take drugs,” adding “To do that, the DREAM mission has recently collaborated with Sanker Centre for Neurology and Mental Health and we are not going for a course, which Sanker is already running, where teachers will be trained in counselling students, young children from classes II to V, where they will be impressed with the need to stay free from substance abuse.”
He also announced that the state government will bear 50 percent of the course fee, which is at Rs 10,000 and said, “That’s a major initiative that government funding teachers, who will act as a counsellor in addressing – as we can’t have all school children gathered in one place, so we will train teachers who will act as counsellors in the respective schools for which government is funding 50 percent of the course fee.”
Further, the minister informed that another initiative is that one of the major football clubs – the Shillong Lajong FC – has partnered with the department in campaigning against de-stigmatisation and also reaching out to the youth population.
“We are also in constant touch with faith-based institutions, also with the Meghalaya Users Forum. They are in constant touch with our mission director and also community leaders, youth groups, NGOs have been interacting with the mission director on a regular basis, the themes of which include destigmatisation, decriminalisation, legal awareness and youth engagement spaces.”
Another aspect of this multipronged approach is that the department is giving a lot of emphasis on vocational and skill development.
“We have found that this is a very successful model when it comes to weaning away those who have fallen prey into addiction, so training sessions have been conducted at New Hope Deaddiction Centre, both for males and female addicts. We are also collaborating with MSSDS, Don Bosco, ITIs, and we are offering courses in plumbing, food processing, mobile repair, photography,” Lyngdoh added.
Director, DREAM Francis Kharshiing said schools are encouraged to nominate one teacher for the training of becoming a counsellor.
“The course is only for 10 teachers for one month. It will increase. In 10 months, we will train over 100 teachers. The idea is that these trained teachers can influence the children.”
