Nukkad nataks, songs to help Delhi schools tackle sniffing intoxicants

New Delhi: Street plays, songs and slogans will be some of the new
methods the Delhi government will be adopting to prevent school going
children of the national capital from taking to inhaling intoxicants
like paint thinner and eraser fluid.

Delhi government has submitted its action plan before the Delhi High
Court, which is to be followed in all schools under the Directorate of
Education here.

The government in its plan submitted on Wednesday has cited as to how
training sessions will be conducted at all schools for teachers as
well as for students.

Hearing the submissions, a division bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra
and Justice Sanjiv Khanna disposed of the matter and directed the
government to implement the new policy at the earliest.

The bench also said: "Posters should be displayed at key points of the
national capital, so that the children and their parents get to know
about the harm caused by inhailing intoxicants."

"In parent-teacher meetings the school authority should tell about
this kind of intoxicants been used by their child in the school
campus," said the bench.

The bench was hearing the PIL filed by a lawyer, Sanjeev Sabharwal,
who sought an order for restricted access of eraser fluid, naphthalene
balls, pain-relieving balms, nail paint remover, paint thinner, among
other such substances, to school-going children.

The PIL was based on a news report and sought the court to direct the
government to take preventive steps in the availability of certain
daily items which are being used by school-going children for
addiction by way of inhaling.

In its proposed action plan, the government in its affidavit cited the
methods like conducting plays or nukkad nataks, give children slogans
to learn, make some stories highlighting the side effects of using
these intoxicants and group discussions.

Sabharwal submitted before the bench that the government should ensure
that such substances do not make way into schools and the parents must
be made aware of widespread substance abuse among school children.

Costing just between Rs.15 and Rs.30, most children could buy these
items from their lunch money. Some even go as far as inhaling petrol
from their parents' cars and parked bikes, said the lawyer.

According to the report, the doctors said prolonged abuse could damage
brain cells and cause cancer. IANS