CoNE celebrates its first anniversary
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, June 23 2012:
Empowerment of people who use drugs and other belonging to marginalized sections of the society is the need of the hour.
Drug users are people who have been misled and there is the need for all of us to join hands and empower them so that they can stay away from drugs and take part in the development process, exclaimed Moses Chalai, Commissioner, Health & Family Welfare.
Moses Chalai was speaking on the occasion of first anniversary of the Community Network for Empowerment (CoNE) today at Lamyanba Sanglen, Imphal.
He further stated that empowerment should go hand in hand with the efforts of drug users to stop drugs and stand on their own feet.
On the occasion, Commissioner Moses Chalai also launched the official website of CoNE (www.conemanipur.org) .
RK Nolinikanta, President, CoNE, who was also present on the occasion, said that people who use drugs, people living with HIV and AIDS, sex workers and Nupi manbis continue to face immense hardship due to stigma and discrimination against them.
Denial of services, physical abuse and harassment still continue, although many of these cases are not reported.
In February 2012 CoNE conducted an assessment in Imphal East to establish the extent of discrimination faced by people who use drugs in health care settings.
The study highlighted service denial, delay in service delivery, charging of money where services are meant to be free of cost, ill-treatment, verbal abuse, harassment and breach of confidentiality committed by health care providers in various service centers.
The extent of discrimination in government health care institution is as high as 66.66 percent while it is 16.67 percent in private health care settings.
The findings were shared in a dissemination workshop in New Delhi in March 2012, he added.
Dr N Shyamjai, Deputy Director (TI), MACS said that different stakeholders including those working in non-health areas need to come together if the issue of drug use and HIV in the state is to be tackled effectively.
Validating the multi stakeholder approach R.K.Ibungosana Singh, Superintendent, NCB, Regional Unit, Imphal, said that NCB has strived to check drug trafficking and abuse.
However, to be successful there is a need for different groups of people, including drug users, to work together.
In recent past, NCB has interacted with Myanmar officials to curb cross border trafficking of drugs.
In coordination with different stakeholders the network has already started working on reviewing of the State AIDS Clinical Expert Panel (SACEP) which has inadvertently delayed treatment of PLHIV recommended for second line ART, expansion of the existing Opioid Substitution Therapy (OST) programme, prevention and treatment for hepatitis C and reinstitution of the Manipur Human Rights Commission (MHRC) among others.
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