40 families in Sangli district made addiction-free by their own children

Dilip Waghmare, a teacher at the district administrative school in the Babri vasti here, took up this initiative in 2017 after he noticed irregular attendance at the school.

Sangli: Men from at least 40 families in Sangli gave up their addictions after their children insisted and put in relentless efforts to make them addiction-free. The initiative was taken by a school teacher at a government school in a small village called Pandozari located in the Sangli district. Dilip Waghmare, a teacher at the district administrative school in the Babri vasti here, took up this initiative in 2017 after he noticed irregular attendance at the school.

"Our school is attended by children of sugarcane-cutting laborers and people belonging to the Pardhi community who work in the neighborhood regions. We noticed that these children registered for school but showed very scarce attendance. When we tried to find the reason behind it, we found that the parents of many children got into frequent quarrels as a result of alcohol or other addictions," Waghmare said, adding that it was clearly having adverse effects on the children's school attendance.

"We thereafter decided to start a campaign to get rid of this addiction. We also soon received support from Mutha Foundation's Value Enhancement Education Program and Salam Mumbai's Tobacco Mukti Janajagrana. Through a door-to-door campaign, we started spreading awareness about the ill effects and adverse impacts of drugs and alcohol consumption," Waghmare said.

But it was not an easy way. Waghmare, being a school teacher, met a lot of resistance from the parents of his students. "Many asked us to 'stick to our own jobs'. Several families even reported us to the higher authorities and police. But we were firm with the initiative. However, when we did not see much change, it struck us that we can ask children to be our mediums to get the message through. So we inculcated the need for de-addiction in their minds through value education activities with the help of the Mutha Foundation," the teacher added.

He further said that this also turned out more difficult than it seemed, as this time, it was the children who faced their parents' resistance. "We had put the children to task, but it initially led to a lot of differences between them and their parents. But the children adamantly forced their parents to quit the addictions. It started bearing fruit in some time, and by the end of five years, men from over 40 families had given up their addictions," Waghmare said.

Harshada Mote, one of the students who participated in this campaign, said she is very happy to have successfully freed her father from the clutches of addiction to alcohol and tobacco. "My father would sometimes get into ugly fights in an inebriated state. I remember being very scared of it as a child. When I was in the third grade, I got lessons from the teachers in school about de-addiction. We were told by the teachers to put in efforts and ask our fathers to give up alcohol. It was not easy. My father even beat me up when I insisted. But I was stubborn about it and he finally had to give up," Harshada said.

Dattatray Bapu Babar, who was one of the victims of alcohol addiction, said he was thankful to teacher Waghmare who took up this initiative and made his children efficient to pursue him into giving up alcohol. The school still continues its efforts to get the vicinity freed of any kind of addiction.