As a step towards spreading awareness about abusive drug consumption by students, Mirror Now, a National News television channel hosted a debate at Indraprastha College for Women, to have a one-on-one conversation with the students.
Ms. Faye D’Souza, the Executive Editor at Mirror News, along with five panelists, hosted a debate in the campus of Indraprastha College for Women on Thursday, August 31, 2017, in the college’s auditorium. The panel included a practicing advocate and member of the Bharatiya Yuva Janata Morcha, a pediatrician with significant contribution in the field, the DCP of Delhi police, a script writer hailing from the Bollywood industry, and a student of the college.
With the aim of initiating a dialogue between the general consumers of drugs and those opposing the consumption, D’Souza started by discussing its easy accessibility around educational institutes by taking the Hyderabad drug bust case as an example. Inviting opinions from one of the panelists, Nandini Suri, who is also a student of the college, the panelists discussed about the urgent need of enabling a communication about the issue at a national level, between the country’s leaders and the general masses. One of the panelists who is a practicing advocate at the Supreme Court and a member of the Bhartiya Yuva Janata Morcha, the student wing of Bharatiya Janata Part (BJP), talked about the provisions in the Indian Constitution that prevent the illegal circulation and consumption of drugs, which widened the debate’s horizon to the connection between drug consumption and the law’s role in curbing it.
Further opening the debate to the audience which primarily comprised of students from the college, various concerns and angles about the issue came to the fore. The primary issue discussed was the vulnerability of an average teenager, and the corruptibility of the Police Force which has enabled a manifold increase in such rackets across the country. The debate included the aftermaths of abusive drug consumption, however casual or occasional it may be. One of the panelists, the DCP of Delhi Police added, how even casual or occasional consumption of drugs facilitates other rackets including human trafficking etc. The students also raised questions about the validation provided to drugs’ or alcohol consumption, majorly by Bollywood and/or the entertainment industry, and its subsequent influence on teenagers.
Faye D’Souza, in her concluding note, welcomed solutions to fight the problem, where one of the panelists put forward “flipping the peer pressure” as one of the solutions that might prevent many teenagers from being consumed by this culture of abuse.
With the debate, Mirror Now took their responsible step towards preventing an entire generation which is at stake.
Feature Image Credits: Priyal Mahtta for DU Beat
Priyal Mahtta