Issues in substance abuse among children

Prof E. Bijoykumar Singh *

A participant at the 2-day Workshop on 'Substance Abuse Among Children' at Hotel Classic on 22 August 2013
Pix - Deepak Oinam

Substance abuse is defined as a pattern of harmful use of any substance for mood altering purposes. Common substances used for abuse are tobacco, inhalants and alcohol. The multiplicity of effects on a child alienates him from society and he fails to develop into a responsible and complete person. This incurs huge cost both for the family and society.

That it was a matter of concern for the society was shown by the two day workshop on substance abuse among children at the Classic Hotel on 22 and 23 August. The workshop was organised by National Commission for protection of child rights, Delhi and Department of Social Welfare, Govt. of Manipur. Shri O.Ibobi Singh, our hon'ble CM was the chief guest in the inaugural function.

Besides the members of NCPCR, our minister of social welfare km Ak. Mirabai devi , Shri A.Nabachandra Singh, Chairman,Manipur state CPCR , chief secretary Lawmkunga were also there. The speakers came from academics, NGOs, medical profession, police and child rights activists.

Of the many issues highlighted in the workshop let me take up two issues which I consider to be important.

A Sai story goes like this. A young boy asks his busy father how much he is paid per hour for his work. The father says one thousand. The boy asks his father for Rs 500. "Why do you need it?", asks the indulgent father. The child answers" I have five hundred and with this I will buy one hour of your time". This is what we call poverty of prime parental time with the child. This aspect was stressed by Dr Lenin of RIMS who was speaking from his experience.

We do not give prime time to our children and we have so many unrealistic dreams. Where would Sachin Tendulkar have been today if his parents had insisted him to be a doctor? His centuries for the country were not good enough for some grace marks in matriculation examination. Where would Nehru have been if Motilal had succeeded in making him an ICS officer? Nehru was allowed to be a dreamer. They succeeded because they had their space. The lesson is critical in our anti substance misuse programmes.

Parents have such a high stake in the success of their children yet they play a marginal role. They depend on the government, the NGO and almost everyone except themselves for the success of their children. Unfortunately the others on the average cannot identify themselves with the children. For them an addict is just another client. For the parents the addict is also their precious child. Many a times the interest of the parent is opposite to that of the NGO.

The deliberations in the workshop showed how glaringly this stakeholder group has been kept out of the picture. I think their participation in the programme should be as far as possible institutionalised. What is wrong if one is the secretary of parents association for misguided youth trying to come back to the mainstream? No one is born an addict, one becomes an addict due to various factors, over some of which we have no control. The cumulative effect is the transformation of an innocent child.

If the parents are to be mobilised, nothing short of an orientation programme is required. The fast pace of modern life has taken a heavy toll of parental love and guidance. Parents have become sheep in the pasture following a leader blindly. Parents should learn to understand their children as unique individuals. The pressures of parents' unrealistic ambitions, their inability to confide with their parents and natural inquisitiveness for new experiences have led many of our youth astray.

I feel that parents should spend more prime time with their children- what can be better than having a five day week? The working hours of Saturday may be adjusted with the other working days. The savings that will come in terms of healthy youth and lesser tension in the family will more than make up the loss in output if there is any.

Your child grows under your watch. In the seminar Dr Rajesh said that an addict in Delhi spent around Rs1000 daily. In a year it is Rs 365000. If a father loses Rs 2000 by not working on a Saturday over 52 Saturdays in a year ,to look after his child spending time with him to understand him properly , the loss adds up to Rs 104000. It is still profitable.

Some IT companies in the USA are even experimenting with four day week. I am not aware of any such work for this state. The hon'ble CM who was the chief guest loudly wondered whether production of tobacco products should be banned, whether their prices should be raised to unaffordable levels. We have to realise that the demand and supply factors are much more complex than that of, say, the vegetable market. There is a compulsive force called addiction which can sweep aside all rational factors.

Who doesn't know that substance abuse is harmful in every way? Yet we find children and adults indulging in exactly what they should not do. That they do not have will power is too simple for an explanation. Parenting is no longer as simple as it used to be. One has to guide the child through the hidden hills of temptation.

Abhiram Mongjam, another speaker, lamented the fact that our children no longer have the time to be children. They are personification of the ambitions of their parents who are planning to achieve what they themselves could not achieve.

We have data. We analyse them using sophisticated tools and draw up policy programmes based on our findings. This is how policies should be framed. Surprisingly, the problem persists and even becomes more complicated. We religiously blame the officials for the implementation failure and go to the extent of blaming the central government.

The officials in their turn would blame others. Have we ever thought about the quality of data base, the basis of our actions? If our data base is unreliable, the measures will not be effective. Drug addiction carries with it a social stigma. People come to rehabilitation centres mostly after everything has failed in the family. The presence of a drug addict in a family creates problems for any family.

How reliable are the data provided by such persons? How free are the data from social bias? Surveys for getting information on sensitive attributes are plagued by the problem of untruthful responses or non co-operation by respondents which lead to biased estimates. To avoid the evasive answer bias and also preserve the privacy of the respondents there is a statistical technique known as randomised response technique.

I came to know this in my search for statistical tools for analysing the volume of border trade at Moreh. In economics we find that respondents for various reasons always give wrong answers to questions about items as simple as their income. Just as a smuggler would hesitate to say yes to the question -are you in smuggling trade? -an addict also would hesitate to declare that he was an addict. If he says the right thing, what protects his privacy? Randomised response technique takes care of both issues.

Such care has not been taken at the data collection stage despite the dictum- garbage in, garbage out. If we take due care in collecting the data, our picture would be accurate and I am confident that policy measures would be more effective. This is true for any problem.