The Hindu : New Delhi News : NGOs join hands to combat substance abuse among children

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Sunday, Apr 17, 2011
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NGOs join hands to combat substance abuse among children

Staff Reporter

80 per cent street children addicted to whiteners: survey

NEW DELHI: Concerned over the growing instances of substance abuse among children and adolescents, several non-government organisations organised a colloquium to discuss the issue and to take remedial steps.

The colloquium was organised by Chetna and I-Partners with different NGOs and representatives from the police, All-India Institute of Medical Sciences and National Commission for Protection of Child Rights.

Representative from Chetna, which works for street and working children, pointed out that after conducting a survey they found that 80 per cent of the street and working children were addicted to whiteners.

The NGO claimed that the daily sale of whiteners in the city is over 20 lakh bottles per day and the addiction is prevalent among school-going children as well.

Participants agreed that the whiteners are easy to procure since they do not come under the category of drugs. They regretted that since there is no check on its sale and owners, distributors, and production companies do not owe any responsibility for misuse of their product, children can easily procure the whiteners. The representatives also noted that till date none of the commissions working for child rights have taken any action against the problem.

To address the issue, it has now been decided to set up a sub-committee under the leadership of the NCPCR which will look after issues related to substance abuse among children, appeal for enforcing legal bars on shopkeepers and train NGOs dealing with the issue of substance abuse.

It was also decided that under the forum of Integrated Child Protection Scheme (ICPS), funds will be used for helping children battling substance abuse and the police's intervention will be sought to keep a tab on shopkeepers selling whiteners to children.

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