By Felix Anthony –
Longding: A group of 300 youth from the 51 villages of Longding district came together at De Paul School, Tissa from 20 – 23 April 2018 for a youth rally to fight opium addiction in the district.
“Longding district, the far eastern most district of Arunachal Pradesh, ranks among the highest opium addicts in the state. It is our humble effort to create awareness among the youth to tackle this problem,” said Mr. Honlem Khangham, the General Secretary of the Longding District Catholic Youth Association. The convention is the result of an extensive house-to-house survey in the entire district for a period of over two months.
According to a recent survey by the Government of India, Arunachal Pradesh emerged as the largest opium producer in the country with Anjaw, Lohit and Longding districts topping the list.
Bishop George, who organized the event, said such events not only bring the youth from different villages together but it helps them get organized, become aware of the existing problems and take appropriate steps to address them. “If all of you who have gathered for the convention would resolve not to become victim of this opium addiction, then this convention is a success”, he said. “Let it not end with this rally. It should lead you to take concrete steps to curb the opium menace in the district”.
Most of the youth had to walk for hours to reach the venue due to absence of roads connecting the villages in the district.
The three-day event, that was filled with animation, colourful cultural events, sessions on ways to fight opium addiction, motivational talks and various literary competitions came to a fitting conclusion with an awareness rally on the issue of opium addiction in the district.
The first ever district level youth convention to fight opium addiction springs in new hope to the people of one of the least developed districts of Arunachal Pradesh.
Longding district is the last district of Arunachal Pradesh, sharing international boundaries with Myanmar in the east and state boundaries with Nagaland and Assam in the south west.