Need for coordinated intervention by all stakeholders to curb drug menace: Official
Speaking at a function on International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Peren district, Principal Secretary of Law & Justice and Fisheries & Aquatic Resources, Y Kikheto Sema quoted a 2021 survey by the Union Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, which states there are 6.24 lakh substance users in Nagaland, including 1.11 lakh children and 26,000 women.
This figure accounts for nearly 31 per cent of the state's population, placing Nagaland among the top 10 states in India with the highest number of injecting drug users, he said.
Globally, over 30 crore people use drugs. In India, 7.21 crore are affected by substance abuse, with around 8.5 lakh injecting drug users. In Nagaland alone, 40,000 people are injecting drug users, with heroin being the most commonly abused substance, he said.
Sema said the state government is making earnest efforts, despite limited resources, to address this crisis through law enforcement, rehabilitation, and public awareness.
However, he called for a more comprehensive and collaborative strategy to prevent the flow of drugs, especially given Nagaland's porous borders with Myanmar and Manipur, both major drug trafficking routes.
Maintaining that border fencing is a sensitive issue due to the presence of Naga communities on both sides, Sema suggested a cross-border community initiative to address trafficking collectively.
Further, as a Christian-majority state, the bureaucrat urged the church to take a more proactive role in prevention and awareness. He noted that churches remain the most influential institutions in Naga society and should utilise their platforms like Sunday schools, youth groups, and general congregations to educate people about the dangers of drug abuse.
"There is a lack of awareness within church circles. The church must rise to the occasion and lead from the front," he said.
Sema proposed a model based on the 4 Cs: Coordination, Cooperation, Confidence, and Contribution among churches to combat the crisis.
He also called for early education, emotional support, meaningful engagement, and the creation of drug-free environment. He emphasised that prevention begins at home, through open dialogue and strong moral foundations.
He urged stakeholders—government bodies, churches, families, educators, and communities—to come together with urgency and resolve, to protect Nagaland's future from the chains of addiction.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Hisar teenager cremated after Haryana government accepts family's demands, lodges FIR
Eleven days after a Dalit teenager died in Haryana's Hisar, allegedly while trying to evade the police, his family claimed his body on Friday and performed his last rites after the government agreed to five of their demands, including an impartial investigation into his death. Sixteen-year-old Ganesh's family members had been protesting since his death on July 7, alleging he had been killed by the police. 'The family had raised five demands. The government has agreed to accept all five,' Krishan Kumar Bedi, Minister for Social Justice, Empowerment, SCs and BCs Welfare and Antyodaya (SEWA), who mediated between Ganesh's family and the state government to resolve the standoff, said. 'The family was demanding that an FIR be registered in Ganesh's death. We have registered the FIR. The family sought that the innocent should not be targeted. We have assured them it will be a fair investigation. The family wanted Ganesh's post-mortem examination to be done by a board of doctors and videographed. It has already been done,' Bedi said, speaking to the media in Hisar. 'The family demanded that one of their kin should be given a job. We have assured them it will be done. We have assured the family that wherever and whichever investigating agency the family wants, we shall get this matter investigated by that agency,' he added. Bedi had arranged a meeting between Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini and Ganesh's father, Vikram, relatives and other members of the Dalit community from Hisar on Thursday night. He led the government delegation to Hisar on Friday and assured an impartial investigation into Ganesh's death. 'The innocent need not worry, be it police personnel or the youth. No innocent shall be targeted. The guilty, however, will not be spared. From day one, the government has been saying this,' Bedi said. On Thursday, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had raised the issue, saying the incident showed 'the lives of Dalits are of no value' in a BJP government. Former Punjab Congress chief minister and Dalit leader Charanjit Singh Channi visited Hisar on Thursday to meet Ganesh's family, a day after the visit by another prominent Dalit face of the Congress, Kumari Selja. On the night of July 7, the police arrived at Bhagat Singh locality in Hisar following a complaint that loud music was being played in public long after the 10 pm deadline. According to police, Ganesh and his friends were celebrating a birthday. When the police tried to stop the youths, they were allegedly attacked. The police claim Ganesh and a friend, Akash, rushed to the terrace of a house in a bid to escape and jumped. While Ganesh died, Akash was injured, the police said. Ganesh's family has alleged he was pushed off the terrace by the police.
Time of India
an hour ago
- Time of India
Officials try to identify 18 bodies in deadly Iraq shopping mall fire
Officials try to identify 18 bodies in deadly Iraq shopping mall fire (Image: AP) B AGHDAD: Officials struggled Friday to identify more than a dozen bodies pulled from a deadly shopping mall fire in Iraq, amid ongoing investigations into what caused the blaze. An Iraqi medical official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment said the final death toll was 63, including 18 bodies that could not be identified due to the severity of the burns and would undergo DNA testing. The Corniche Hypermarket mall in the town of Kut in Wasit province, a five-story building containing restaurants, shops and a supermarket, had opened just days before the blaze, which officials said broke out late Wednesday on the second floor in an area selling perfume and cosmetics. Civil defence crews were able to rescue 45 people from the burning building. Officials said that most of those who died were trapped on the upper floors. While the cause of the fire has not yet been determined, officials blamed lack of safety standards in the building for the scale of the tragedy. Provincial Gov Mohammed al-Miyahi has said that the building owner did not implement fire safety measures and had not applied for required permits. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like American Investor Warren Buffett Recommends: 5 Books For Turning Your Life Around Blinkist: Warren Buffett's Reading List Undo The provincial council of Wasit on Thursday voted to form committees to carry out building safety inspections and to suspend the director of Kut municipality and the director of occupational safety until investigations into the fire are complete. Al-Miyahi said Thursday that legal complaints had been filed against the building owner and shopping centre owner, who could not be reached for comment. The governor said in a press conference that the son of the shopping centre owner and other members of his family were among the victims in the blaze. Poor building standards have often contributed to tragic fires in Iraq. In July 2021, a blaze at a hospital in the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah that killed between 60 to 92 people was determined to have been fuelled by highly flammable, low-cost type of "sandwich panel" cladding that is illegal in Iraq. In 2023, more than 100 people died in a fire at a wedding hall in the predominantly Christian area of Hamdaniya in Nineveh province after the ceiling panels above a pyrotechnic machine burst into flames.
New Indian Express
3 hours ago
- New Indian Express
Syria's Druze find bodies in the streets while searching for loved ones after days of clashes
JARAMANA: A Syrian Druze woman living in the United Arab Emirates frantically tried to keep in touch with her family in her hometown in southern Syria as clashes raged there over the past days. Her mother, father and sister sent videos of their neighbors fleeing as fighters moved in. The explosions from shelling were non-stop, hitting near their house. Her family took shelter in the basement. When she reached them later in a video call, they said her father was missing. He had gone out during a lull to check the situation and never returned. 'Now I only pray. That's all I can do," she told The Associated Press at the time. Hours later, they learned he had been shot and killed by a sniper. The woman spoke on condition of anonymity fearing that using her name would put her surviving family and friends at risk. A ceasefire went into effect late Wednesday, easing days of brutal clashes in Sweida. Now, members of its Druze community who fled or went into hiding are returning to search for loved ones and count their losses. They are finding homes looted and bloodied bodies of civilians in the streets. 'Systemic killings' The fighting began with tit-for-tat kidnappings and attacks between local Sunni Bedouin tribes and Druze militias in the majority-Druze Sweida province. Government forces that intervened to restore order clashed with the Druze militias, but also in some cases attacked civilians. At least 600 people — combatants and civilians on both sides — were killed in four days of clashes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor. It said the dead included more than 80 civilians, mostly Druze, who were rounded up by fighters and collectively shot to death in what the monitor called 'field executions.' 'These are not individual acts but systemic,' the Observatory's director Rami Abdul-Rahman told the AP. 'All the violations are there. You can see from the bodies that are all over the streets in Sweida clearly show they're shot in the head.' In response, Druze militias have targeted Bedouin families in revenge attacks since the ceasefire was reached. Footage shared on Syrian state media shows Bedouin families putting their belongings in trucks and fleeing with reports of renewed skirmishes in those areas. There was no word on casualties in those attacks.
