Schools in Meghalaya’s mining-affected East Jaintia Hills train minds against drugs through storytelling

Schools in Meghalaya's East Jaintia Hills combat drug abuse through storytelling, talent showcases, and confidence-building initiatives for students.

GUWAHATI

Schools in Meghalaya’s mining-affected East Jaintia Hills district are training young minds against substance abuse through storytelling and showcasing their talent to increase confidence, public-speaking skills and emotional intelligence.

Drug abuse has been a major issue in Meghalaya, especially in districts where a ban on rat-hole coal mining since April 2014 hit the local economy. Most of the State’s abandoned and illegal coal mines are in the East Jaintia Hills district.

To counter this problem, the Meghalaya Government introduced the Drug Reduction Elimination & Action Mission (DREAM) in 2023, prioritising empowerment and resilience-building alongside enforcement measures. The East Jaintia Hills district authorities launched ‘ia ka Mynried’, meaning “for a better tomorrow” in the Pnar or Jaintia language, across 11 educational institutions for four months from December 2024.

The initiative, aligned with DREAM, is supported by the District Mineral Foundation and implemented by Avenues, a Meghalaya-based social enterprise.

The curriculum spread across six days of winter camp per group, focussed on confidence-building, basic communication skills and strategies for resisting drug abuse. These camps covered 1,826 students – 723 males and 1,103 females – through 36,520 hours of training.

On Tuesday (March 18, 2025), events were held across three schools in the district to distribute certificates to the last 688 students. Two of these schools are at Byndihati and one in Iongkaluh.