Dhubri: The Centre for Substance Abuse Prevention and Care (CSAPC) has initiated a yoga and meditation programme for the inmates of Dhubri District Jail.
The yoga and meditation programme was initiated on Saturday in Dhubri District Jail.
Conducted by the Centre for Substance Abuse Prevention and Care (CSAPC), a public charitable trust, the yoga training would be held three times a week.
The yoga and meditation programme is likely be followed up with interventions to help the almost 200 under trial prisoners held under the NDPS Act.
Dhubri district has been identified as a very vulnerable area wherein heroin abuse is widely prevalent as killer narcotic substances are available even at the village level.
The CSAPC officials said in addition to narcotic addictions, HIV is spreading fast particularly amongst the intravenous drug users in the district located in the far-west of Assam.
A lot of intravenous drug users in Dhubri district are also infected with the killer Hepatitis C.
According to social workers in this field, the district health infrastructure, including the new Dhubri Medical College and Hospital are ill equipped to respond, prevent and treat these diseases.
Despite the urgency, no Anti-retroviral therapy (ART) centre has been started in DMCH and the nodal preventive office for Hepatitis C is almost non-functional.
The ART is a daily combination of HIV medications that helps people with HIV live longer, healthier lives.
The CSAPC officials are optimistic that the yoga and meditation programme in Dhubri District Jail is going to bring about a sea-change in the care of the killer narcotic substance users.
