REGIONAL RESOURCE AND TRAINING CENTRES- a bottoms-up approach
** A. Goswami
Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment

Demand reduction for alcoholism and substance abuse means prevention, treatment, rehabilitation and all other efforts that help end the craving and desire for alcohol or drugs. The real problem is not drugs, or addictive substances or addiction, but the individual's inability to cope with his physical, social and/or emotional conditions, within the context of his socio-cultural milieu. As addiction is only an extended manifestation of an individual's impaired/inept coping mechanism, any intervention, of necessity, would have to focus on the individual in his totality, including his co-dependents and peer group. It is obvious that any effort in this direction requires a sustained, committed and long-term intervention with a flexible and innovative approach.

The best long-term strategy for reducing demand lies with:
• Creating more satisfying life conditions for as many people as possible, especially   the disadvantaged;
• Educating everyone, especially the young, about the dangers of drugs, and just as   importantly, teaching healthy alternatives to drug use;
• Providing effective rehabilitation for people who become addicted and helping   them become productive citizens, positive role models, and active supporters of   demand reduction efforts.

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, bestowed with the mandate for prevention of drugs, has been, for the last 15 years, promoting and supporting culture-specific, need oriented and localized community based interventions and initiatives through Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs). These organizations, equipped with a multi-disciplinary team of professionals, have been undertaking awareness creation and preventive education in the community and providing treatment and rehabilitation services for the addicts. The Ministry is, at present, financially supporting around 440 programmes all over the country with an average annual budget of more than Rs. 25 crores.
It is, however, realized that effective and appropriate service delivery through the NGOs, while on the one hand, requires continuous and regular professional development of the service providers in inculcating skills pertaining to newer strategies for dealing with addiction, on the other, necessitates that documentation of the implementation of the programmes, monitoring of the changes in the profile of the drug abuse scenario and technical support to be able to respond to the changing situations, should be taken care of. In a country like India, with diverse physical, social and cultural features, it is necessary that the adopted strategy take into account the regional needs and local field realities in undertaking activities related to advocacy, research, monitoring and training. The dynamics of drug abuse suggest that the situations would vary from region to region and so would be the requirements.
In order to meet the regional requirements and aspirations, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in collaboration with UNDCP and ILO, has evolved a functional structural mechanism. The National Centre for Drug Abuse Prevention (NCDAP) has been established at New Delhi, to serve as an apex body for training, research and documentation in the field of alcohol and drug demand reduction. The NCDAP is intended to be the national repository of expertise and information to suggest and motivate necessary policy interventions.

The core objectives of NCDAP are:
• Raising the competency standards of the functionaries/ personnel working in De-  addiction centres and other related sector
• Invigorating efforts for preventing or minimizing any anticipated or consequent harm   related to Drug Abuse in clients and in the Community.
• Standardization of care in Drug Abuse Prevention.
• Updating information and creating a database on extent and pattern of Drug Abuse   and its various interventions at local, regional, national and international levels.
• Developing standards of monitoring systems of various interventions.

In addition, Eight NGOs with long years of experience and expertise in treatment, rehabilitation, training and research have been designated as Regional Resource and Training Centres (RRTCs) for different regions of the country:

The entire strategy is based on the understanding that the Government must strive to make interventions and provide resources consistent with the identified needs at the operational level. This necessitates a mechanism whereby Government is periodically apprised of the changing trends of drug abuse, support is extended consistent with felt needs, networking of programmes is ensured at the local level for optimum utilisation of resources and simultaneously service delivery is strengthened through need based skill development of the service providers through the experts and resource persons at the regional level.

The Ministry is guided by the desire to be led by the community response rather than the community being forced to accept what they may not consider best for them ……….

This is a great responsibility and a great challenge. The RRTCs can, at best consider them as first amongst the equals and any big brother attitude on their part would only boomerang to spoil their own credibility in the field. The RRTCs, should in time to come, strive towards detaching and distancing themselves from their identity of their parent organisation. The RRTCs are the resource of the region and therefore, the infrastructure created and the expertise being developed with the support of the Government and other agencies, belong to the region and not the NGO managing it.

The Ministry has undertaken a bold initiative, first of its kind, to take the programme to the community, and, it now depends upon the RRTCS and the NGOs, how best they utilise this opportunity of remote controlling the interventions of the Government, by submerging, at least for the time being, their institutional and individual vanities for the sake of the society. Otherwise we, all collectively, would be responsible in history, for betraying the trust of the community and frittering away the scarce financial resources.

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