E-Paper
Anti-addiction drive connects with over 7,000 students in Pune district
Report states that in 2019-2020 as many as 210 volunteers and trainers reached out to 7,297 students from 56 schools to ensure their commitment against addictions and help them abstain from them through counselling
As many as 7,000 students received guidance to abstain from various addictions under an anti-addiction initiative ‘Saiyam’ carried out by Tarachand Ramnath Seva Trust in association with Jnana Prabodhini Institute of Psychology.
The initiative carried out with the focus on substance abuse, media and Internet abuse and sexually risky behaviour among adolescents aged 13 to 16 years.
Jnana Prabodhini’s Institute of Psychology, which released its Impact report of the year 2019-20 revealed that after conducting the initiative for the youth not only their thoughts and opinions but also their behaviour related to addiction showed change.
The report states that in 2019-2020 as many as 210 volunteers and trainers reached out to 7,297 students from 56 schools to ensure their commitment against addictions and help them abstain from them through counselling.
The training lasted for 1,033 hours and 22 sessions from August 2019 to June 2020.
Rati Forbes, head, Jnana Prabodhini Institute of Psychology, said, “The report of the ‘Saiyam’ initiative shows that addiction is at the root cause of many problems among the youth. While taking steps towards fulfilling the dream of a healthy society, it is important to reach out to urban as well as rural areas.”
Mukta Puntambekar, director, Muktangan Rehabilitation Centre, said adolescents get influenced by content shown through various media and assume that addiction brings happiness and reduces stress.
“It is necessary to dispel the doubts among youngsters and provide them with the right answers. It is important to implement awareness-building activities like ‘Saiyam’ all over the country. We need to focus on the availability of positive addictions rather than negative ones,” she said.
Accordingly, the Jnana Prabodhini Institute of Psychology had prepared a module and a curriculum through its volunteer group called ‘Samvadini’ which carried out pre-tests and post-tests on the subjects on addiction through sessions in each school in Pune district over the past one year.
As per the report, out of 7,297 students, 59 per cent children showed a positive change in their level of awareness regarding myths and misconceptions regarding addictions, while 61 per cent children showed a positive change in their level of awareness regarding knowledge and attitude about sexuality issues including gender sensitivity. Accordingly, about 57 per cent of children showed a positive change in their assertiveness, level of frustration tolerance, delay in gratification and loss of control.
