Rise in drug users and cases of HIV/AIDS great concern for Tripura society: Tripura CM

Tripura Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha expressed his concern over the growing trend of drug addiction, especially among the adolescents of the state, and viewed that no police or government can resolve this crisis until society is cautious and gets involved in order to save the future generation.

CM Dr. Saha, also the Health Minister of the state, express his concern during his address at Rabindra Bhavan on Saturday after launching the Mukhyamantri Sustho Shaishob Sustho Kaishore Abhiyaan (MSSSKA) 3.0 that aims toward making Tripura into an anaemia free state with the prime target - children, adolescents, and women.

Under MSSSKA 3.0 the health department, in convergence and collaboration with other line departments, has a target to deworm some 10.91 lakh children and adolescents besides providing iron and folic acid supplements to 11.10 lakh with initiatives to reduce diarrhea, and pneumonia by creating awareness and administering life-saving vaccines from September 5 to 15.

Others present at the inaugurated program were Chief Secretary JK Sinha, Health Director Subhasish Debbarma, MD NHM Subhasis Das, Director Education Chandni Chandra, Director Social Welfare and Social Education Siddharth Shiv Jaiswal, and others.

The CM said that witnessing the success of MSSSKA 1 and 2, the government has decided to repeat the program as it is working towards improving the health indicators of the targeted group who are the future of the state and the nation.

Dr. Saha also administered deworming syrup among students and distributed gift hampers, besides participating in the vaccination program.

He added that through the collaborative efforts of various line agencies which are related to child development and in convergence with the health department, the programme shall lead the youths towards a better future, but at present, a big hurdle that the state is facing is the growing menace of drugs among the younger generation.

Dr. Saha believes that drugs cannot be controlled solely through policing; rather, awareness and consciousness must be created, with the society also coming forward to help.

He also said that due to the sharing of syringes among drug addicts of late, there has also been a noticeable rise in the number of HIV and AIDS patients in Tripura.

MSSSKA was first launched in the state in September 2021 and has shown positive results in reducing anemia, especially among the 1–19 year age group, through deworming and providing iron folic acid under a community-based door-to-door administration programme by ASHAs and ICDS workers.

Since the launch of MSSSKA some two years ago, there has been a drastic reduction in anaemia and, as per the findings of Swastha Tripura Shrestha, the government has decided to go for the third phase of the programme.