Agartala, August 12: Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha on Tuesday attended an awareness campaign organized by the Tripura State AIDS Control Society here at Agartala Pragna Bhavan and said that driven by adolescent curiosity or the influence of drug-addicted peers, many teenagers fall into the trap of injectable drug use, putting them at risk of contracting life-threatening diseases such as HIV/AIDS.
Dr Saha said that in Tripura, this concern is particularly acute among students from Class VIII to Class XII an estimated 231,000 boys and girls.
A massive anti-drug initiative titled – ‘Bell of awareness’ was held as part o a path breaking initiative to aware school students on HIV/AIDS on the occasion of International Youth Day. The programme is being rolled out simultaneously in 6,000 classrooms across 1,187 schools to educate students about the harmful effects of substance abuse and its links to HIV/AIDS transmission.
Alongside this initiative, the state also launched the Intensified IEC Campaign, which will further strengthen public outreach and awareness efforts across Tripura.