Save a teenager phase-II launched

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: “Children are fast becoming victims and culprits in anti-social activities. Atrocities against children are on the rise. It is shocking to see that children are found culprits in many of these incidents,” said Education Minister Abdu Rabb. He was inaugurating the second phase of ‘Save a Teenager’ project at the Govt VHSS, Manacaud, on Tuesday. He termed the project as an initiative having ‘timely relevance’.The ‘Save a Teenager’ project has been implemented jointly by the National Service Scheme and the Vocational Higher Secondary Department in the 2010-11 academic year. The project has been on since June 26 this year. It aims to provide training to 250 NSS programme officers and to make 24,000 volunteers ‘mentors’ to tackle various problems faced by students in teenage.The new generation is not proceeding through a healthy path in life. The traditional joint family system is shattered and the trend of nuclear family has taken its toll on the society, the Minister said. Many parents who are employed hardly get time to interact with their kids or enquire about their problems, thereby losing the opportunity to ‘study’ them. Students are turning to be the carriers of narcotic and psychotropic drugs on school campuses. In this scenario, initiatives like ‘Save a Teenager’ deserve a seat of paramount importance as they create a stage for these children to open up, he added.  “Skyrocketing developments in information technology act as a boon and a bane at the same time. The character formation of students, especially teenagers, depends on these tools also. The measures taken by educational institutions are remarkable as they form special protection groups to observe the students and tackle their problems,’’ Abdu Rabb observed.  He also launched the second phase of leadership training to 24,000 volunteers. Prof Johny K John, director, VHSE & SIEMAT, presided over the function.