Assembly panel for extending Student Police Cadet programme to all schools to prevent substance abuse

The Student Police Cadet (SPC) programme should be extended to all government, aided, and private schools in the State to ensure that students do not fall prey to drug and other substance addiction, the Assembly Committee on Welfare of Women, Transgenders, Children, and Differently Abled has recommended.

The recommendation to the General Education and Home departments is among the many in a report on substance abuse among children and its solutions by the Assembly committee, headed by U. Prathibha, MLA.

The committee recommends that a ‘college police cadet’ scheme be rolled out in government, aided, and private colleges on the model of the SPC to support adolescents as they transition from school life to higher education.

It calls for expediting steps to ensure the services of counsellors in all government, aided, and private schools in the State and other facilities such as hostels where children are accommodated so that those with mental health problems such as borderline personality disorder or whose parents are separated or divorced or have a substance abuse problem can be identified early and their mental health ensured.

It has mooted completion of training for select school teachers to equip them to become primary counsellors and ensuring that there is at least one trained teacher in every school.

NDPS Act

The committee has observed the limitations of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in ensuring stringent punishment for those accused of selling such substances to children, encouraging them to use it, selling such substances in the vicinity of educational facilities, or advertising liquor. It called for expediting steps to implement recommendations submitted to the Union government on amending laws to ensure punishment for the accused even in ‘small quantity’ cases.

It urged departments concerned to ensure funds to implement the ‘Our Responsibility to Children’ in every school in the State to create awareness among students of the ills of substance abuse and take preventive steps against the backdrop of an increase in drug cases in the State.

The committee underscored the need to raise awareness among parents and teachers on preventing substance abuse and how to handle such cases, including identifying children who come from families facing various challenges and are more vulnerable to drug abuse. It also mooted implementing parenting clinics of the Women and Child Development department at the panchayat level itself.