Punjab, the land once famous for its prosperity, nowadays has gripped the prime time on almost all the news channels, regional and national, not because of its GDP growth but because of its unbounded rise of the problem of drug abuse.
‘Drug Afflicted State' has been another axiom or alias for Punjab and this alias has pestered not only a common man, a drug user, a family but the defense administration, state and intra state authorities too at its highest peak. Yet in true perspective, still the quality and quantity of efforts being made are not satiating the thirst of the criticality of the situation.
Here, marking a sincere effort, Joshi Foundation, an Ngo working against the menace of drugs organized a Round Table Conference titled ‘Menace- A Challenge for Society', held on 8th Jan 2015, at PHD Chambers, Chandigarh, Punjab. Along with DJJS representatives Sadhvi Rupeshwari Bharti Ji and Swami Gurukripanand Ji, the disciples of His Holiness Ashutosh Maharaj Ji, various renowned dignitaries from the sectors of medical, law, education, bureaucracy, NGO’s and the defense put forward their points of intervention as active stake holders contributing in developing a stringent strategy to kill or lampoon the proliferation of drug abuse. The Union Minister Vijay Sampla, Rajya Sabha member Avinash Rai Khanna, former Punjab minister and MLA Jalandhar Manoranjan Kalia were some among them.
‘Along with the efforts in making the addicts recuperate, the emphasis should be laid upon educating and sensitizing the non users and initial users too, available at schools, colleges and young working force at small scale enterprises, medium scale enterprises and MNCs’, said Sadhvi Ji while putting forward the organization’s point of view in order to combat this menace. She also stressed upon the need to help and empower people in every sector with selfesteem and skills in order for capacitating them to be able to distinguish between the rightness and wrongness accordingly for them selves.
She further expressed how the organization has been activated from more than three decades in uprooting this problem, which is very much related to terrorism. With 500 workshops each year, every possible school is being reached out in the states of Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Jammu, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka etc. And, we are receiving results unexpectedly wherein students, parents, teachers are stepping forward to express the change that they have witnessed in their immediate environment with the help of constructive interventions like ‘Say No’ Advocacy Workshops.
Amongst the 40 speakers, more than 30 repeatedly echoed with the statement of Sadhvi Ji in majority that since it is a societal problem, every stakeholder has to come forward and join hands to curb it with dedicated community initiatives.
The others who participated in the debate included minority commission chairman Rajesh Bagha, information commissioner Surinder Awasthi, International food and trade analyst Devinder Sharma, former DGP Punjab PC Dogra, RSS Punjab joint general secretary Amrit Sagar, cardiologist Dr H K Bali, Punjab Information Commissioner Surinder Awasthi, Kheti Virasat Mission’s director Umendra Dutt.
