Govt clarifies doubts on verification of private rehab centres
Source: Chronicle News Service

Imphal, November 21 2022: Clarifying doubts on the ongoing verification of non-funded/private rehabilitation and de-addiction centres raised by Drug Users Federation for Human Rights and Justice convenor RK Nalinikanta and his subsequent appeal to halt the inspection, the state's Social Welfare Department has stated that the inspection is being carried out by a team of officers headed by District Social Welfare Officers (DSWOs) concerned to verify the eligibility of the centres for registration under the department.

In a press release, the department mentioned how the federation alleged the questionnaire related to the ongoing inspection not covering certain aspects mentioned in the recently framed guidelines for setting up of Treatment and Rehabilitation of Users for Social Transformation (TRUST) Centre in the state.

The apprehension of the federation is that the current inspection will not effectively capture issues related to human rights vi-olation and forcible pick-up/confinement by the centres.

The relevance of query on the number of trained staff in the centre was also questioned, the release noted.

It then clarified that prevention of human rights violation in any de-addiction/ TRUST centre is one of the primary objectives of framing the guidelines by the department.

Certain sections of the guidelines for setting up TRUST Centre in Manipur have been incorporated to achieve this objective.

The sections include 20 points shall be deducted for NGOs involved in human rights violation, illegal activities, forcible confinement of patients; NGOs scoring below 50 points shall be cancelled/deregistered; and in the event of conviction of the chief functionary or staff of the centre for death cases or torture or human rights violation of in-patient in the centre, registration of the centre shall automatically be cancelled, the release pointed out.

Such matters relating to human rights violation cannot be ascertained by asking straight questions to the staff and functionaries of the de-addiction centres.

No official of the centre will admit that they have violated human rights in the past or have resorted to forcible pick-up or confinement of clients in the past.

The DSWO concerned should employ various methods to find out facts relating to such matters.

Some of the methods/ options that can be employed are seeking reports from police stations concerned, talking to the clients in private and seeking information from other reliable sources, it pointed out.

Further, Part-II of the questionnaire marked as Confidential to be filled by the IO' used in the present inspection is meant for the DSWOs to report any findings on human rights violation, illegal activities, forcible confinement of patients among others.

Reduction in the score or cancellation of registration due to the above reasons is to be recorded in this part of the questionnaire.

Hence, questions in this regard are not covered in Part-I (information to be obtained from the centre) as it is highly unlikely that private/non-funded de-addiction and rehabilitation centres themselves will admit to any human rights violation or illegal activities perpetrated in their centre.

Secondly, DSWOs have been given proper briefing and handholding before commencement of the inspection of private/non-funded de-addiction centres that applied for registration under the department.

With regard to concerns raised in respect of staffing pattern, infrastructure and training, Part I of the inspection report format has all the questions related to these.

It is normal to award higher score to de-addiction centres with more number of trained and experienced staff/functionaries than others with lesser number, it reasoned, adding that the department aspires to provide capacity building training to the functionaries/staff of TRUST Centres from time to time.

Hence, finding out the number of trained and untrained staff is essential.

The department appeals to all stakeholders working in the held of prevention of psychoactive substance use in the state and the public in general to give co-operation to the department s endeavour of regulating and monitoring all private/non-funded de-addiction and rehabilitation centres to ensure that rights of the clients are upheld while providing quality treatment to substance users who can be valuable resources to the society upon recovery, the release said.

Positive criticism and constructive suggestions in the best interest of drug users' community is most welcome, it maintained while urging individuals or organisation to seek information/clarification from the department in case of doubt, instead of just going to the press/media with half baked information.

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