By Violet Pereira, Team Mangalorean

Mangalore:  Department of information, in association with Temperance Board, Bangalore, Balepuni gram panchayat and Janashikshana Trust and Shri Kshetra Dharmasthala jointly organized a World anti-drug week and awareness camp in Dr Ambedkar Bhavan in Balepuni village in Bantwal taluk here on June 21.
 
The programme began with a welcome by senior assistant director of information K Rohini. Zilla panchayat member from Karnad Santosh Kumar Rai inaugurated the camp by lighting the traditional lamp along with other dignitaries on the dais.
 

Addressing the gathering CEO of zilla panchayat Dr K N Vijayaprakash said, "Alcoholism and abuse often result in loss of relationships, loss of employment, vehicular accidents or violence and it is a tragedy in the society".  He further said, "Nowadays we are reading in the newspapers as well as websites and TV channels that most of the accidents and murders happen because of alcohol. Many men kill their wives, Drunken driving causes accidents killing innocent people. Suicide or fights between husband and wife take place. Alcohol is the main cause for all these ills in the society.  Alcohol is a drug. The more a person drinks, the more tolerant his body becomes to its effects. Once you start consuming alcohol it will start controlling you and eventually it will take over your life.  Some people cannot control their drinking habit but keeping control on the habit one can easily come out from the addiction."
 
"Our country, especially, the villagers are very popular for joint families and retaining the culture and tradition but nowadays, there are splits in families because of misunderstanding.  We do not follow the old system of living together and respecting the orders of the elderly person in the family. Consumption or addiction of drug or alcohol will make a person an animal.  Alcohol or drugs will block the thinking power of a person and he will lose control over him. When a person loses his self-respect he will  become useless in the society and his family will also face problem," he said.
 
"When father drinks, the mother should guide and advise her children about the disadvantages of alcohol, because once the father gets the branded in the society, his children future will be in trouble. Wives should help their husbands in giving up their bad habits.  When a man forgets his responsibility and becomes a slave of alcohol or drugs, what punishment he should get?" he questioned. 

He also said, "We celebrate our birthdays, marriages or any other functions and most of us drink alcohol and even offer drinks to children. We must not encourage alcohol in any functions."
 
While concluding he said, "Once a person is addicted to alcohol or drugs, it is very difficult to come out of it.  Before getting into any habit one should think about its impact on their life and  family.    Nowadays women, youngsters and high school boys also have started drinking and it appears to be a matter of prestige for some." He urged the gathering not to surrender to alcohol to forget their worries or stress.
 
Life Insurance officer Vishwanth Pai shared his  experience on his addiction to alcohol and how he came out of it.  He said, "For a human being nothing is impossible.  When a person is addicted to alcohol he creates problems in his own life as well as in his family life."  After attending the temperance programme in Dharmasthala he realized that consumption of alcohol is nothing but what leads to destruction of one's life.  When he was addicted to alcohol he was not attending the office properly.  But after giving up the habit from the past 3 years he was absent for only 3 days at his work, he said.  He advised alcohol consumers to give up their drinking habit for their own sake and not for the society.

Sakaala group was formed and it was inaugurated by Dr Vijayaprakash on the occasion.