The National Institute of Social Defence organized a training of trainers (ToT) programme on ‘Drug Abuse Prevention for Peer Educators of Transgender Community’ on February 19-20 in Delhi. Participants from several states from across the nation took part in the training, which was inaugurated by Dr. Veerendra Mishra, Director, NISD, and Dr. Giriraj, Depy Director, NISD. Dr. Mishra spoke about the importance and need to create awareness about substances and substance abuse in the transgender community. “Transgenders are one of the most vulnerable groups in society who are prone to falling prey to substance abuse,” Dr. Mishra said during his interaction with the participants who were representing their states including Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, among others.
Resource person Dr. Sumit Rana, Asst Professor, Dept. of Psychiatry, Lady Hardinge Medical College, chaired a session on the basics of drugs and addiction process, addiction as a disease, classification of psychoactive substances and the drug abuse scenario in India. Other resource persons included Dr. Alok Aggrawal, Associate professor, AIIMS Delhi, and Kunal Kishore, Associate Director, HIV/ AIDS Alliance India. The two-day programme also had a session by Mx. Raveena Bariha, who also works with NISD as a Consultant (Transgender).