The Department of Students Affairs (DSA) and the Department of Commerce (DoC) of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) conducted a workshop on the ‘Role of students in making Udupi Nasha Mukt’ on Wednesday as a part of the project ‘Nasha Mukt Udupi Abhiyaan’ .
The workshop addressed crucial issues related to substance abuse among youth and had around 500 participants.
Inaugurating the workshop, Kurma Rao, Deputy Commissioner of Udupi, assured his help in conducting all activities of ‘
Acknowledging the difficulty for administrators to identify afflicted students, Narayana Sabhahit, Registrar of MAHE, who presided over the event, emphasised the importance of peer support in helping their fellow students to curb the menace of drug abuse.
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Delivering the keynote address, Vinod C Nayak, Professor, Department of Forensic Medicine and Coordinator of Centre for Clinical and Innovative Forensics of the Manipal-based Kasturba Medical College, elaborated on the hazardous effects of different kinds of drugs and emphasised on the stringent legal repercussions of drug abuse.
Sandeep Shenoy, Head of DoC, spoke about the alarming trend of drug abuse in India. He expressed his pleasure that the students of DoC have joined hands with DSA to combat this menace on campus.
Geetha Maiya, Director of Student Affairs and Principal Investigator of ‘ Nasha Mukt Udupi Abhiyaan’ , launched the DoC chapter of ‘ Nasha Mukt’ club at MAHE, and administered the oath for core committee members of the club.
She also motivated the students by giving them tips on how to emerge from problems that they may encounter in student life. Giving an overview of the ‘Nasha Mukt Udupi Abhiyaan’ , she urged all students to participate in all ‘Nasha Mukt’ activities.
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In the coming month, DSA will be conducting a peer support workshop for 105 students across all institutes of MAHE. They will then join the project to conduct awareness programmes in 10 selected villages of the Udupi district.