Sri Thaawarchand Gehlot E-Inaugurates the New Building of National Institute of Social Defence

Union Minister for Social Justice & Empowerment, Shri Thaawarchand Gehlot e-inaugurated the new building of National Institute of Social Defence (NISD) Sector-10, Dwarka, New Delhi today. In his inaugural address, Shri Gehlot said that NISD is the nodal training and research institute in the field of social defence which focuses on human resource development for drug abuse prevention, welfare of senior citizens and transgenders, beggary prevention, and other social defence issues. It provides inputs for the social defence programmes to the Government of India. It also conducts training and research in the field, apart from ensuring the implementation of various programmes under the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction and National Action Plan for Senior Citizens.

Dr. Virendra Singh, Director, NISD made a Power Point Presentation on new building of NISD on the occasion.

NISD’s major areas of concern are Substance Abuse Prevention, Care of Older Persons, and Other Social Defence issues including Beggary Prevention, and welfare of Transgenders. The institute conducts research on social defence issues, apart from compiling and analysing statistics in the area. Through its Project Monitoring Unit (PMU), NISD is also responsible for the monitoring of schemes and programmes by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. NISD organises sensitization programmes on drug abuse prevention, beggary prevention, care for older persons, and welfare of transgenders, and provides training to the functionaries of concerned departments of the central and state governments, service providers/ caregivers, and academicians and professionals of schools of social work and concerned academic institutions.

NISD has three main divisions, namely National Centre for Drug Abuse Prevention (NCDAP), Old Age Care Division and Social Defence. NCDAP implements the activities of National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction through Community-based Peer-Led Intervention & Outreach Drop-In-Centres across states. The Old Age Care Division runs a series of programmes/certificate courses to develop a cadre of professionals for the care and welfare of older persons. It organises the courses by itself and in collaboration with the Regional Resource Training Centres (RRTCs) and other reputed organizations. The Social Defence division trains/sensitizes the Govt./NGOs/Panchayat/Police functionaries and Social Work professionals on social defence issues like beggary prevention and transgender welfare through its national-level one-month programmes and short-term state-level programmes. NISD, through its divisions, conducts training and capacity-building programmes in collaboration with RRTCs and government-aided institutions, thereby strengthening the workforce in the field of social defence.

Source: PIB