Six hundred voices, one promise. And it echoed across two districts of Arunachal Pradesh on the same day.
A Pledge That Filled a Hall in Doimukh
On Friday, students, teachers, and youth volunteers packed the Government Higher Secondary School in Doimukh for a drug awareness programme organised by the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development, Northeast Regional Centre (RGNIYD-NERC). The theme — Nasha Mukti Yuva, Sashakt Bharat — was not just a slogan. By the end of the day, every single person in that room had raised their hand and taken a pledge to live drug-free. That kind of collective commitment is rare, and when it happens in a school hall, it tends to mean something.
Papum Pare SP Taru Gusar used the technical session to break down the legal muscle behind the fight against drugs, walking the students through the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and its serious consequences for trafficking. He pushed home the point that young people aren’t just bystanders — they can report illegal activity and actively shape the kind of community they grow up in. Senior counsellor Kenjom Doji of Kripa Foundation took a different but equally important angle, explaining through real-life case examples how to spot the early signs of addiction and where to find rehabilitation support. It wasn’t a lecture. It was a conversation, and the students clearly felt the difference.
Theatre, Quizzes, and Real Emotion
Youth volunteers didn’t just sit and listen — they performed. A theatrical piece brought to life the personal, familial, and social consequences of drug dependence, making visible what statistics often can’t. A quiz followed, testing how much had actually sunk in. Youth leader Nabam Tado urged students to own their future and push back hard against societal pressure to use substances. The school’s vice principal called it the first event of such scale his institution had ever hosted — and welcomed more like it.
Yingkiong Joins the Movement
The same day, in Upper Siang district, the NGO Sikiing Kojee Charitable Society organised its own programme at Royal Siang School in Yingkiong under the theme Create, Perform and Inspire, channelling the anti-drug message through cultural performances, poetry, painting, and poster-making competitions. District Information and Public Relations Officer Yalik Jerang addressed the crowd, urging students to adopt healthy lifestyles and become responsible citizens. SKCS chairperson Dr Mity Jopir Apang confirmed that youth enrolment on the government’s designated anti-drug portal is being carried out on a mission mode to maximise participation across the district.
When Young People Lead, Things Change
What stood out most about these events wasn’t just the numbers — it was the ownership. Students performing skits, volunteers running awareness drives, young people explaining to each other why drugs destroy lives. That’s not a government programme doing its rounds. That’s a generation deciding it wants better for itself. And if Arunachal Pradesh’s youth keep showing up like this, the message to drug peddlers is becoming very clear: you picked the wrong state, and you picked the wrong generation.
HASHTAGS
#NashaMuktiYuva #ArunachalPradesh #DrugFreeIndia #YouthEmpowerment #NashaMuktBharat #AbotaniTV #ArunachalNews #SayNoToDrugs #DrugAwareness #RGNIYDIndia #NDPSAct #Doimukh #UpperSiang #Yingkiong #NortheastIndia #SashaktBharat #StudentPledge #DrugFreeYouth #ViksitBharat #YouthForChange
