Fr Philip Parakattu SDB, State Director of the Drug Rehabilitation Education and Mentoring (DREAM), an initiative of BREADS which works towards an addiction-free society in Kerala by offering awareness, counselling and rehabilitation services for children and youth, created the context for the deliberations.  

With its presence in ten of fourteen districts in Kerala, since its inception in 2021, the BREADS’ DREAM initiative has reached out to 10,38,723 children, 88,969 parents, 2342 teachers, and 4347 ambassadors through awareness programmes. With its counselling services and rehabilitation centre, DREAM and the Don Bosco network are in a position to spearhead a public and private partnership in the effort to help the youth of Kerala break free from addictions.

Each of the key Kerala government representatives—Dr V Venu (State Chief Secretary), Mr K V Manoj Kumar (Chairperson-KSCPCR), Dr Sharmila Mary Joseph (Principal Secretary-Women & Child, Social Justice, and Local Self Governance), Mr S. Shanavas (Director-General Education) —highlighted the different interventions by their respective departments towards substance use prevention among children. The State Chief Secretary stressed that the Kerala State Government considers addiction prevention and rehabilitation as significant and complex subjects needing urgent addressing.  

Some ways forward that emerged from the Workshop on the prevention of substance abuse among youth:

• State-level coordination between the Police and Excise Departments. 
• State-level coordination among the different government departments for unified service. 
• Public-private partnerships for coordinated action. 
• Explore the association of police stations with psychologists and child-friendly deaddiction centres.
• De-institutionalisation and inclusive education to promote the best interests of the Child. 
• Initiate coordinated efforts among parents, teachers, and authorities and promote relevant educational programmes in the academic curriculum.
• Empower all the stakeholders to be vigilant and become whistleblowers about the prevalence of drugs in their local communities.
• Educate children and youth about the laws related to substance use, possession, and transaction.  
• Mandatory training for teachers on addressing addictions and their prevention.
• Conduct community diagnosis to understand the extent of the problem and initiate panchayat-level surveys and vulnerability mapping.
• Establish deaddiction centres for children and women.

Different agencies like the Excise Dept., Education Dept, Social Justice Dept., Women and Child Development Dept., Health Dept., Local Self-Government Dept., Kudumbashree, Student Police Cadets, DREAM, Sajeevam, State Level Coordinating Agency (SLCA), and VENDA, presented their interventions towards addressing the issue.