OPINION Drug Free India? ....... Prof. T K Thomas 26 Feb, 2019 Two weeks back, this column carried a piece entitled “Hooch Victims: Not Just Numbers!” about death of over 40 people after drinking illicit liquor. A bigger hooch tragedy last week killed over 150 tea garden workers and over 300 hospitalized for critical care in Assam’s Golaghat. A friend asked why such frequent occurrence of hooch tragedies and deaths of poor and marginalized people and why no action is being taken to prevent such tragedies. Familiar with the problem of addiction in the country, he wondered why the government was more concerned about drug addiction and not on alcohol addiction. It took some time to explain to him how the two problems were being handled by two separate ministries of the government of India-Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for drugs and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for alcohol. Last week on 19th February , the Prime Minister through a video address launched
Young India Network is a youth (14-30 years) driven network for the prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and its risk factors, formed with a vision of having a meaningful involvement of youth and People Living With NCDs in the advocacy of health agenda in India with a primary focus on alcohol and drug use as major risk factors for both communicable and NCDs. It aims to contribute in achieving the Goal 3 of Sustainable Development Goals,ensuring healthy lives .