BREADS Facilitates Public-Private Partnerships for an Addiction-Free Kerala

“Many things we need can wait. The child cannot. Now is the time his bones are formed, his mind developed. To him we cannot say tomorrow, his name is today.”
― Gabriela Mistral

Quoted by both Mr Manoj Kumar (Chairperson- Kerala State Commission for the Protection of Child Rights- KSCPCR), and Fr George PS (Executive Director–BREADS), as they stressed the need for urgent concerted action to prevent the ever-increasing substance use among children and youth in Kerala. KSCPCR and BREADS were the joint organisers of a significant State-level Stakeholders’ Workshop on 29 February 2024, in Thiruvananthapuram, which facilitated the active participation of 178 stakeholders from various government departments and NGOs. They had all assembled to discuss the status of substance use among the youth in Kerala, and the measures needed to address the issue.

Fr Philip Parakattu SDB, State Director of the Drug Rehabilitation Education and Mentoring (DREAM) initiative of BREADS, which works towards an addiction-free society in Kerala by offering awareness, counselling and rehabilitation services for children and youth, created the context for the deliberations.

Each of the key Kerala government representatives—Dr V Venu (State Chief Secretary), Mr K V Manoj Kumar (Chairperson-KSCPCR), Dr Sharmila Mary Joseph (Principal Secretary-Women & Child, Social Justice, and Local Self Governance), Mr S. Shanavas (Director-General Education—highlighted the different interventions by their respective departments towards substance use prevention among children. For instance, between 2018-24, the Excise department, through its VIMUKTHI programme had counselled 17,951 individuals and treated 1,23,266 patients. The Health department had treated 3,043 children and the Women & Child department facilitated the treatment of 516 children in 2022-23. Coupled with the outreach of the various NGOs, the numbers convey a sense of the seriousness of the problem, which is unfortunately always on the rise.

Different agencies presented their interventions towards addressing the issue: Excise dept., Education dept, Social Justice dept., Women and Child Development dept., Health dept., Local Self-Government dept., Kudumbashree, Student Police Cadets, DREAM, Sajeevam, State Level Coordinating Agency (SLCA), and VENDA. Their efforts and interventions were appreciated by all.

The State Chief Secretary stressed that the Kerala state government considers addiction-prevention and rehabilitation as significant and complex subjects needing urgent addressal.  Some ways forward emerged from the workshop on the prevention of substance abuse among youth:

• Strengthening coordination between the Police and Excise departments at the state level.
• Need for proper coordination among the different government departments at the state level for unified service.
• Interventions of the non-governmental organisations were highly appreciated and public-private partnerships for coordinated action were welcome.
• Explore the association of police stations with psychologists and child-friendly deaddiction centres.
• Importance of deinstitutionalisation and inclusive education to promote the best interests of the Child.
• Initiate coordinated efforts among parents, teachers, and authorities, and promote relevant educational programmes in the academic curriculum.
• Empower all the stakeholders to be vigilant and become whistleblowers about the prevalence of drugs in their local communities.
• Educate children and youth about laws related to substance use, possession, and transaction.
• Mandatory training for teachers on addressing addictions and their prevention.
• Conduct ‘community diagnosis’ to understand the extent of the problem, initiate panchayat-level surveys and vulnerability mapping.
• Establish deaddiction centres for children and women.

The KCPCR Chairperson assured all the stakeholders that their suggestions and deliberations would be compiled and presented to the state government for improvement of policy and implementation improvements.

With its strong presence in ten of fourteen districts in Kerala, since its inception 2021, the BREADS’ DREAM initiative has reached out to 10,38,723 children, 88,969 parents, 2342 teachers, and 4347 ambassadors through awareness programmes. With its counselling services and rehabilitation centre, DREAM and the Don Bosco network are in a position to spearhead a public and private partnership, in the effort to help the youth of Kerala break free from addictions. The State-level Stakeholders’ Workshop is a good start.