Under the guidance and supervision of Principal Secretary, School Education, the Directorate of School Education Jammu concluded month long campaign on drug de-addiction under Nasha Mukt J&K Abhiyaan sensitizing on an average 1 lakh students and other stakeholders per day.
The campaign was carried out in all government schools throughout Jammu Division.The programme 'Nasha Mukt J&K' campaign was launched by the Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha in Jammu on September 1 and is a part of the National Campaign of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment across the Country to ensure a reduction in Drug Demand and its abuse.
The Directorate of School Education through its counselling cell issued a month long calendar in which various activities like sensitization on Drug De-addiction and group counselling sessions by faculty counsellors at schools, pledge taking ceremonies, movie screening, poster making, essay writing competitions, painting competitions etc. were carried out by students at school levels.
To generate mass awareness and disseminate the message, the schools also organized Road Shows, Nukad Nataks.To further add momentum against the drug menace, in addition to school level programmes, divisional level programmes like online panel discussion by experts from health and drug de addiction centres and online quiz competitions were organized by counselling cell, DSEJ.
The campaign culminated with a marathon in all the 10 districts of Jammu Division by students and teachers. The aim of the marathon was to encourage students and other members of the society to put their health first and never take support of drugs as a solution to their problems.
Director School Education Jammu, Dr. Ravi Shankar Sharma congratulated team counselling, for successful implementation of various activities and said that constant actions in this regard must happen to prevent children from getting addicted to drugs because they are the most vulnerable group who are exposed to such addiction.
Also the ultimate aim was to educate each and every student from the menace of narcotics and other harmful substances and empower them with good health and a bright future.Dr. Romesh Kumar, Head Counselling Cell DSEJ, said that prevention is better than cure, so nip the evil in the bud.
Educate the children about drug abuse so that problem may have vanished from its basic roots. Pertinently, in order to bring paradigm shift in the direction of drugs and substance abuse among students, counseling cell has already taken various initiatives like constitutions of counselling cells in HSS/HS/MS for guiding students about ill effects of Drugs and facilitating cessation, implementation of Tobacco free educational institutes (TOFEI) guidelines in schools, inclusion of Drug de-addiction as monthly theme in annual Counselling calendar, Constitution of Prahari clubs in schools to keep a watch on drug symptoms and for the purpose of peer counseling, online/offline pledges on drug de addiction, designating teachers as tobacco monitors in schools to keep a vigil on anti-smoking campaign, organizing teacher training programmes through Directorate of Health Services, State Aids Control Society, NGOs, (SPYM), etc. to build capacities of teachers as Drug de-addiction champions, mass PTMs on Drug de-addiction to sensitize the parents and various other activities on drug de-addiction like school management committee meetings, videos, audio clips, animations, elocution, debates, discussions, poster making, storytelling etc. by Students and faculty counsellors in schools.