Multiple dimensions of drug abuse Part-III: Biological and Medical Dimensions

We need to fully understand the neurobiology behind drug abuse as well as its types, signs and symptoms, risk factors, health hazards and treatments in order to manage it well

After having discussed some of the psycho-social and religious dimensions in the previous two parts of this article series, it is time to discuss important biological and medical factors governing drug abuse. 

Biological Dimensions 

In order to understand the neurobiology behind drug abuse we need to understand the role of chemical substances released inside our brain called neurotransmitters namely Dopamine and Serotonin. They are the chemical substances or neurotransmitters synthesized and released in the basal ganglia and limbic system of our brain that are responsible for regulating our pain and pleasure pathways. Every time these chemical substances are released by the nerve cells almost 80 percent of the substance released is reabsorbed back by the same neuron that releases it and only 20 percent interacts with the receptors and elicits a biological response. After interacting with their receptors these neurotransmitters are metabolized or degraded by enzymes. However, drugs like Cocaine and Heroine inhibit this reabsorption by blocking the neuronal transport system and constantly maintain a high concentration of Dopamine and Serotonin at the nerve junction called synapse whereas they should have been ideally stored back in their neuronal storage vesicles inside the neuron. This explains the neurobiology behind a constant craving for the drug because the moment drug intake is stopped by the abusers, brain feels deprived of the pleasure due to falling levels of dopamine or serotonin at the synapse and evokes a withdrawal syndrome that is manifested by a host of physical and psychological symptoms like body ache, shivering, muscle cramps, lethargy, sweating, vomiting, diarrhoea, palpitations, restlessness and immense discomfort. That is how these substances of abuse hijack the dopaminergic and serotonergic neurotransmission system by triggering a vicious cycle of drug intake-pleasure-drug deprivation-craving-motivation to take more drug-reward after intake in terms of pleasure and repetitive reinforcement of the cycle. This is what causes enslavement of abusers to these drugs who can’t live without consuming them and can go to any extent to procure and use them, leading to rise in criminal activities and anti-social behaviour of drug abusers. Therefore, there is need to make our budding generation aware about this brain hijacking process triggered by substances of abuse so that they remain aloof from them and do not fall prey to their slavery and dependence. And those who have already been entrapped and enslaved by them need to break their shackles of slavery and set themselves free from this scourge. 

Our youth need to know that there are better and smarter ways of pleasure seeking other than drugs and substances of abuse. Several research studies have suggested that protein-rich diet, exercise, sleep and sunlight have a direct impact on the structure and functioning of human brain and on the maintenance of sound mental health. Some of the foods like chicken, eggs, fish, soy products, soy milk, dairy products, nuts, seeds, pineapple etc increase serotonin levels in our brain and thereby promote mental health and improve our mood and behaviour. They also boost our immune system and keep us stress free. Serotonin is a feel-good neurotransmitter produced by nerve cells made from the essential amino-acid tryptophan. Tryptophan itself is important for brain function and plays an important role in sound sleep. We cannot synthesize tryptophan in our bodies, so we need to obtain it from our diet. However, tryptophan is found in many foods whereas serotonin is not. Therefore, eating a balanced diet rich in tryptophan is an essential way to support mental as well as physical health with positive benefits on energy levels, mood, behaviour and sleep. Sufficient secretion of serotonin inside our brain is a vital element for sound physical and mental health because the neurotransmitter has a significant impact on emotional well-being, mood stabilization and physical coordination. It is also important for good bone health, reduction of anxiety and depression, faster healing of wounds, healthy bowel habits and restful, rejuvenating sleep. Therefore, by opting for physical exercise, sound sleep of adequate duration, exposure to sunlight, intake of arginine rich protein diet like eggs, honey, nuts, bananas, spinach, seeds etc and meditation we can maintain our mental balance, stay calm and relieve ourselves of all sorts of stress, worries and anxieties. 

Medical Dimensions 

Medical dimensions of drug abuse include types and definitions of drugs, drug abuse, misuse, substances of abuse, dependence, addiction, epidemiology including incidence, prevalence, mortality and morbidity due to drug abuse, signs and symptoms, risk factors, diagnosis, treatment, prevention, complications, rehabilitation, individual and overall public health impact of drug abuse. It also includes aspects like access and affordability of drug de-addiction treatments and reintegration strategies including creation of livelihood generation opportunities for drug abuse victims. It goes without saying that the impact of drug abuse on the health and well-being of an individual is huge and can severely damage one’s lungs, liver, kidneys and cause acute cardiovascular, dermatological and gastrointestinal disorders besides badly affecting one’s immune system, orientation, memory, concentration and learning abilities. Withdrawal or abstinence syndrome, that is caused when the drug abuse is abruptly stopped by the victim makes things even worse and therefore needs immediate de-addiction treatment. Some of these damages are permanent that cannot be reversed by any means and some have a lasting impact upon one’s physique, mental health, persona and character. Therefore, resorting to drugs is as good as committing suicide or leading to self-harm and destruction. It amounts to disabling, crippling and converting oneself into a vegetable and thereby confining oneself into darkness of drugs for no logical reason whatsoever. When one can use the bounties of Almighty Allah like a sound mind and a sound heart in a sound body for creative, productive, fruitful, constructive and progressive activities, there is no tangible reason why one would make them subservient to the slavery of drugs and destroy his career, reputation, public impression and entire life. 

Socio-economic impact of drug abuse is even worse than its medical and health impact because it not only cripples a person physically but financially, intellectually and emotionally too. They become outcasts in the society and are looked down upon by everyone though that is not justified. They are abhorred, discredited and renounced within their family as well as friend circles. Therefore, drug abusers pay a huge price for their momentary pleasure and temporary excitement. Some of them lose their jobs and businesses, other fail in their crucial examinations and some get divorced too. Therefore, timely deaddiction treatment is a must for those who have fallen prey to this menace following which they can be rescued, rehabilitated and brought back into the mainstream. For this to happen government needs to establish drug de-addiction and rehabilitation centres in every district as envisaged in the drug de-addiction policy of the UT. De-addiction treatments need to be made readily available, affordable and accessible at these de-addiction centres and livelihood generation opportunities need to be made available to them for sustaining themselves and their dependents. Drug abuse detection kits need to be made available and used at schools, colleges, highways for timely detection and deterrence against drug abuse. 

Both parents and teachers need to be well aware about the signs and symptoms as well as about the risk elevating factors of drug abuse that include easy availability of drugs and money, peer group pressure, emotional distress, performance pressure, eccentric personality traits, social seclusion and other unfavourable circumstances. They need to be alert about the changing habits, attitudes, behaviours and daily routines of their children and may occasionally snoop into their rooms to make sure there is nothing like razor blades, aluminium foils, insulin syringes, cigarettes, sniffing straw etc lying around in their rooms and belongings. Teachers too need to be vigilant about any sudden or gradual changes in the performance, responsiveness, attitudes and behaviours of their students and can report the same to their seniors, parents or counsellors and arrange a counselling session for them. While parents need to be cautious about the pocket money given to and spent by their wards because abundant pocket money and easy availability of drugs in their vicinity could make their children potential candidates for drug abuse, teachers too need to keep the students engaged in creative and recreational activities like sports, cultural and community-based group activities so that their energies and curiosities get channelized in the right direction. Government in turn needs to create adequate avenue of recreation and sports activities like indoor and outdoor stadia, youth clubs, gymnasia, wellness centres, swimming pools etc for the proper orientation, utilization and promotion of youth energy and talent. Last but not the least sufficient number of adequately trained and well qualified psychiatrists and clinical psychologists needs to be made available in every district and sub-district hospital and educational institution. 

(Author teaches at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Kashmir and holds the additional charge of Director, Centre for Career Planning and Counselling of the University)

Multiple dimensions of drug abuse Part-II: Psychological dimensions

Establishment of psychological-cum-career counselling cells in all educational institutions can help students overcome troubling emotions and disturbing thoughts besides helping them choose a right career at an appropriate time

Socio-economic, physical, emotional and mental stress produced by the ever-increasing needs, demands and challenges of the contemporary times push the populations in general and youth in particular towards uncertainty, insecurity, instability and fallibility. As a result, some of the budding youth studying in schools and colleges often tend to make mistakes and wrong decisions in absence of proper guidance and supervision. Under peer group pressure or due to lack of awareness they sometimes try to seek refuge in drugs and other substances of abuse and end up becoming addicts. Marking their entry into the dark world of substance abuse they begin with “experimentation” either under peer pressure or out of curiosity and eagerness to experience the temporary ‘excitement’. Then they switch over to “regular use” to continue with the artificial euphoria that lands them into “risky use or abuse” and finally they become physically and psychologically subservient to drug abuse and turn into full time “addicts or dependents”. Therefore, protecting adolescents from adversity at the right stage, promoting socio-emotional learning and psychological well-being, and ensuring access to mental health care are critical for their health and well-being during adolescence and adulthood. This underlines the need to have psychological counsellors at all educational institutions including schools, colleges and universities who can patiently listen to the youngsters, try to understand their mental health needs, offer them coping strategies for overcoming stress and other deviations from normal behaviour through professional psychological counselling. 

High school level marks the beginning of adolescence, a tumultuous and transformative phase in the lives of children. This is the time when they begin to have their own likes, dislikes, outlooks and perceptions about issues, people, ideologies and surroundings, develop their own perspectives and desire to take their own decisions. At this stage it becomes important to channelise their curiosity, enthusiasm and energy towards the right direction through proper guidance and mentoring, in absence of which they may seek refuge in drugs, substances of abuse, bad company, illegal activities and sometimes even fall prey to anti-social elements without realizing its ill effects on their career and future life. Furthermore, the parental pressure to perform well in the examinations, score a high percentage of marks, steer through cut-throat competitions and secure admissions in a reputed college or university are the prime concerns that they usually face. To make things worse, traditions of unfair comparisons and unhealthy competitions in the society besides undue expectations of parents put additional burdens on their feeble shoulders. Parents often fail to appreciate the unique personalities and hidden talents of their children and often force them to be a part of the rat race for medical and engineering admissions. All this often leads to immense pressure, frustration, anxiety and depression among the children. Under such circumstances a caring and empathetic psychological counsellor back at school can serve as a pro-social adult for such students who feel frustrated, helpless and rebellious and can adjust their behaviours, help them identify troubling emotions and thoughts besides teaching them develop coping mechanisms and counter strategies for the same using psychotherapy or talk therapy. Through psychotherapy they can help such students break the vicious cycle of repetitive negative beliefs and thoughts that are followed by perpetual negative feelings and emotions (obsession) and are then ensued by negative behaviour and actions (compulsion). They can help and train them when and how to divert their attention from negative to positive thoughts and feelings. Psychological counsellors can also counsel the parents of such children, rationalize, balance and align their behaviour and expectations in the right direction, thus helping the students get relieved from their unbearable burdens of unrealistic expectations. 

At college level, students feel quite exuberant with enthusiasm and energy. This is an enthralling and exhilarating phase that marks a new turn in the life of a student towards his future. Experience of the new place, new people, new classmates, new environment and a new life can sometimes be difficult for a few to handle particularly those with a shy and introvert kind of personality. New ambience could throw new challenges of social behaviour, networking, intermingling and forming new friendships and relations besides issues related to self-esteem for some students that in turn could cause stress, social anxiety, depression, abnormal behaviour and unusual thoughts. Therefore, a psychological counsellor could be a very helpful source of support for such students where they can get counselling regarding their career, courses, relationships, adapting to the new atmosphere and in tackling personal emotional and mental health issues. Such kind of psychological counselling could boost their morale and improve their performance in their chosen stream and help them overcome their inhibitions, constraints and limitations in their participation in extra-curricular activities like sports, music, fine arts, winter and summer camps, hiking, mountaineering, nature exploration etc. They can be counselled about social anxiety issues, substance abuse and day-to-day stress. Appropriate professional help could help them receive suitable medical and non-medical interventions wherever needed and thereby excel in their career without falling prey to anti-social and immoral activities. This way they will be well-equipped to handle such challenges and be mentally strong to face them upfront. 

Parents and other family members of the victims in particular have a very significant role to play in identifying potential abusers, developing a supportive and caring environment within the family, counseling and educating the abusers about the ill-effects of drug abuse, helping the abusers to return back to their normal life and get rid of the substances of abuse, while at the same time rehabilitating them and boosting their morale and confidence to start afresh as a normal human being capable of standing on their own feet and living an independent life. Parents need to be cautious about the pocket money given to and spent by their wards because abundant pocket money and easy availability of drugs in their vicinity could make their children potential candidates for drug abuse. Bad company and emotional insecurity or instability could only make the things worse for them. They need to be alert about the changing habits, attitudes, behaviours and routines of their children and occasionally snoop into their rooms to make sure there is nothing like razors, aluminium foils, insulin syringes, cigarettes lying around in their cupboards and bags. Teachers too need to be vigilant about any sudden or gradual changes in the performance, responsiveness, attitudes and behaviours of their students they can report the same to their seniors, parents or counsellors and arrange a counselling session for them. Teachers need to keep the students engaged in creative and recreational activities like sports, cultural and community-based group activities so that their energies and curiosities get channelized in the right direction. Moral and value-based education needs to be made an inevitable component of the curriculum so that the students do not go haywire.  

Adolescents who are suffering from any kind of personality or psychiatric disorders are particularly vulnerable to social exclusion, discrimination, stigma that in turn affects their readiness to seek help and exposes them further towards risk-taking behaviour, physical and mental illnesses. Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide among 15- to 19-year-old children. Therefore, the consequences of failing to address adolescent mental health conditions can extend to adulthood, impairing both physical and mental health and limiting their opportunities to lead fulfilling lives as adults. Physical, emotional and social changes, including exposure to poverty, abuse, or violence, can make adolescents vulnerable to mental health problems. Psychological counsellors at primary school level can identify and help children suffering from disorders like schizophrenia, anxiety and panic disorders, phobias, mood disorders like bipolar disorder, eating disorder, autism, obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, personality disorders or learning disabilities. Since parents are not medically trained to notice the symptoms and diagnose these disorders, barring a few of them who are doctors by profession, they often fail to identify these disorders and get timely medical intervention for the same, often leading to increasing severity and progressive complications with advancing age.  Availability of a psychological counsellor at school can ensure constant observation of kids through their class teachers leading to timely diagnosis and early treatment of psychological and personality disorders besides better outcomes of education. Therefore, all educational institutions must engage psychological counsellors to support students in managing their mental health and staying away from drugs and other substances of abuse. 

Quite often it has been observed that inability or failure to make a right career choice at an appropriate stage in life and landing into a career that is contrary to one’s liking leads to utter frustration among the budding youth and generates negatives thoughts, emotions and behaviours making them vulnerable to substance abuse and mental disorders. Therefore, making suitable professional career counselling facilities available at schools and colleges for the timely guidance of students can be of immense help in saving them from the quagmire of frustration, chaos and confusion in life. As such, apart from a psychological counsellor, all our educational institutions need to establish career counselling cells wherein services of professionally qualified and well-trained career counsellors can be made available for fulfilling the counselling needs of our students through psychometric testing and personality profiling. Establishment of career-cum-psychological counselling cells in all educational institutions could mark a good beginning towards immunising our society from the dreadful disease of drug abuse (To be continued). 

(Based on the excerpts from a talk delivered by the author on June 26: International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking  at National Institute of Technology (NIT), Srinagar, organized by CAUSE and DSW, NIT, Srinagar. Author teaches at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Kashmir and holds the additional charge of Director, Centre for Career Planning and Counselling of the University)

Multiple dimensions of drug abuse Part-I: Social dimensions

 Substance use disorder is a multi-dimensional problem that can be tackled effectively by adopting multi-pronged strategies at different levels with active involvement of all stakeholders

Drug abuse, that is more appropriately termed as ‘Substance-Use-Disorder’ owing its derivation to the rising trend of abuse of multiple substances and volatile solvents apart from opioids and prescription drugs, is more of a bio-psycho-social disease or disorder than a self-inflicted affliction, with definite socio-politico-economic and medico-legal dimensions. Etiological or causative factors of this disease, that has of late assumed shape of a dreadful monster ready to swallow and engulf our budding youth and developing nation, too are a lot more complex and diverse than just emotional distress or pleasure-seeking yearning of abusers and so are its confounding and risk elevating factors. Therefore, this scourge needs to be viewed through all relevant prisms and perspectives and all its associated dimensions need to be studied well leading to a multi-pronged, multi-faceted and multi-dimensional strategy to tackle the menace effectively and decisively. Any half-hearted, superficial or unidimensional approach will simply be a waste of time, resources and energy yielding very little or no benefits in terms of curbing this menace. 

Since the problem is deep-rooted, its solution too demands an in-depth exploration and excavation for its conclusive extermination from the depths of our society. This article series seeks to discuss some of the multiple dimensions governing this malaise and multipronged strategies needed to effectively control the same. While first and second parts of this series will discuss psycho-social and religious dimensions; third part will dwell upon medico-legal and biological dimensions; fourth part will shed light upon geo-political and economic dimensions and finally fifth and last part of this series will deliberate upon administrative and regulatory dimensions of this menace. Focus will be on the problem as well as its solution. 

Social Dimensions 

The theme chosen by United Nations for this year’s International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking on June 26^th was, “People first: Stop stigmatization and discrimination” that emphasized upon the need to treat victims of drug abuse with empathy while showing no sympathy for those indulging in illicit peddling and trafficking of drugs. It calls for an end to isolation, discrimination and dehumanization of drug abuse victims and giving them the much-needed opportunities for treatment, rehabilitation, livelihood generation and reintegration back into their respective communities since they too have their own human rights. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) duly recognizes the importance of taking a people-centric approach with a focus on human rights, compassion, and evidence-based practices. 

While sharing and caring, mutual respect, longing and love, coherence and compassion have conventionally been the hallmarks of human relations, social relationships nowadays appear to be undergoing a rapid transition from a close-knit, coherent and intertwined social fabric to an isolated, fragmented and self-centric style of living. Mutual relations are perpetually getting overwhelmed by the rampant use of social media and electronic gadgets leaving little scope for frequent physical interactions, sharing, caring and complementary exchanges. Of late it appears that the intensity, intimacy and depth of bonding among relations is gradually dwindling due to a whole lot of inherent and overarching factors. All this is pushing our younger generation towards the edges and forcing them to explore new ways of social engagement, entertainment and living. Consequently, they are finding temporary and deceptive solace in drugs and substances of abuse and thereby ruining their entire life and future. They are falling prey to the peddlers and getting enslaved by the short-lived euphoria of drugs. 

Need of the hour is to help drug abuse victims break the shackles of slavery and set themselves free from this dangerous entrapment. We need to give victims of drug abuse their freedom to think, plan and decide for themselves within the supportive framework of a loving and caring family and community. Being judgmental about them sows the seeds of discord and hostility among them. One should neither look down upon them nor expect them to change themselves overnight. Accepting people as they are with all their flaws, shortcomings, limitations as well as powers and strengths is the key to a sustainable relationship. As a result of our fraying social fabric our youth are getting more and more isolated and feeling lonely with very limited opportunities of recreation and relaxation. We need to revert back to social engineering through community-based, peer-led interventions and change our age-old social practices, dogmas and stereotypes. We need to treat drug abuse as a disease and accordingly help the victims overcome its sphere of influence through appropriate social, medical, educational, administrative and regulatory interventions. 

Transition from joint to nuclear families and social seclusion practices have led to shattered community linkages. Supportive families are essential for raising socially, mentally and physically healthy and well-adjusted children and preventing later adolescent problems. Factors such as lack of security, trust and warmth in parent-child relationships, lack of structure in family life, inappropriate disciplining practices and insufficient limit-setting can render children at greater risk of isolation, problematic behaviours and subsequent substance abuse and mental health disorders. Therefore, family skills training programmes have been found to be effective in preventing many of these risky behaviours, including substance abuse. There is need to adopt innovative approaches to keep the drug threat at bay. Parents and other family members of the victims in particular have a very significant role to play in identifying potential abusers, developing a supportive and caring environment within the family, counseling and educating the abusers about the ill-effects of drug abuse, helping the abusers to return back to their normal life and get rid of the substances of abuse, while at the same time rehabilitating them and boosting their morale and confidence to start afresh as a normal human being capable of standing on their own feet and living an independent life. Parents need to be cautious about the pocket money given to and spent by their wards because abundant pocket money and easy availability of drugs in their vicinity could make their children potential candidates for drug abuse. Bad company and emotional insecurity or instability could only make the things worse for them. They need to be alert about the changing habits, attitudes, behaviours and routines of their children and occasionally snoop into their rooms to make sure there is nothing like razors, aluminium foils, insulin syringes, cigarettes lying around in their cupboards and bags. 

Other than parents, young adults spend most of their time with their teachers thus making them one of the important stakeholders in curbing the menace of drug abuse. Teachers can be of great help in detecting, identifying, counselling, hand-holding, supporting, encouraging, rehabilitating, remedying, mainstreaming and managing the young drug abusers attending their classes. Regular awareness and counselling programmes through outdoor camps, open air theatres, dramas, painting competitions, video displays, street plays etc need to be conducted by every school and college across the region against drug abuse in order to acquaint the students with the dangers and consequences of such addiction. Awareness about ill effects of drug abuse must be incorporated into the curriculum at all levels of education. Teachers too need to be acquainted well with the signs and symptoms of potential substance use disorder and in the event of any sudden or gradual changes in the performance, responsiveness, attitudes and behaviours of their students they can report the same to their seniors, parents or counsellors and arrange a counselling session for them. Teachers need to keep the students engaged in creative and recreational activities like sports, cultural and community-based group activities so that their energies and curiosities get channelized in the right direction. Moral and value-based education needs to be made an inevitable component of the curriculum so that the students do not go haywire. Modern day teacher has to be a friend, a philosopher, a guide, a counsellor, a mentor and sometimes a ‘caregiver’ too. ‘Care’ translates into interventions that are in the best educational, emotional and psychological interests of the students. As suggested by Deiro (1996), “Students value adults who value them”. Thus, students who are living in seemingly intolerable situations but have a pro-social adult outside their home environs who cares about them will adjust their behaviour to carefully safeguard that relationship. 

At the community level, constitution of block and district level monitoring and vigilance committees with active participation of police, traffic police, medical health officers, school and college teachers, principals, religious preachers, housing societies, Mohalla committees, drug control and excise officials can go a long way in not only creating awareness and preventing abuse but also in identifying magnitude of the problem in each locality and motivating the abusers towards return, reintegration and rehabilitation. Social engineering is of crucial importance in preventing drug addiction. Perpetual sermons through religious preachers during weekly religious congregations, mass prayers and gatherings can have a durable impact in discouraging drug abuse. In Islam use of alcohol as well as all kinds of intoxicants has been clearly prohibited in Holy Quran, Surah Al-Ma’idah [5:90-102], wherein substance abuse has been declared an act of Satan that takes a person away from success, freedom and welfare in life. Therefore, prohibition of drug abuse by all religions needs to be propagated and disseminated constantly to curb the menace. Religious beliefs have a strong influence upon individuals and therefore religious sermons by the respective heads can be highly effective in controlling the problem. Mohalla committees need to identify drug abusers in their own localities, counsel them and their parents, offer them all kinds of monetary, psychological and logistic support in rescuing the victims from the clutches of drug abuse and subsequently treating, reintegrating and rehabilitating them back into the mainstream. Constant monitoring, vigil and intervention at the locality level can prove to be highly effective in overcoming this scourge (To be continued). 

(Based on the excerpts from a talk delivered by the author on June 26: International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking  at National Institute of Technology (NIT), Srinagar, organized by CAUSE and DSW, NIT, Srinagar. Author teaches at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Kashmir and holds the additional charge of Director, Centre for Career Planning and Counselling of the University)

Advent and the Rise of Evolutionary Medicine

Understanding diverse dimensions and facets of evolutionary medicine will lead to innovative approaches in disease detection and management through genome mapping and genetic engineering

Rapid technological advancements over the past few decades are leading to a deeper understanding of the etiology (causation) and pathophysiology (mechanisms) as well as therapeutics (treatment) of the disease. More we understand the phenomena responsible for the disease more we are led towards the evolutionary changes that have occurred in our genotype (complete set of genetic material of an organism) and phenotype (set of observable traits and characteristics of an organism) over centuries and millennia together. Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine for the year 2022 Svante Paabo while sequencing ancestral human genome reported that the major genetic risk factor for severe COVID-19 has been inherited from our ancestors called Neanderthals and that some other sequences in the same genome also gave modern humans much needed protection against such viruses. Thus, the problem as well as the solution ostensibly lies in our genes. Perhaps all that we need to do is to explore our genome well in order to identify such risks and protective factors among our genes. If we succeed in doing that through modern technological tools like bio-informatics (application of tools of computation and analysis to the capture and interpretation of biological data), chemoinformatics (use of chemical information with computer and information science techniques in a range of descriptive and prescriptive problems), genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabonomics, we shall be in a better position to control and overcome disease. Thereby the focus of disease control shall shift from treatment and curation to protection and prevention leading to an integrated and holistic disease management system.

Cancer is believed to strike obese and elderly people more than the young and small creatures. However, in spite of their large body size and greater life expectancy, elephants defy this logic and exhibit less than five percent mortality due to cancer as against twenty five percent mortality in humans. Well-known secret behind this cancer resistance is that they possess twenty copies of p53 gene alongwith their forty alleles as against only one copy and two alleles in humans. No wonder p53 gene is known as ‘guardian of the genome’ because it plays a crucial role in regulating the inherent repair mechanisms of the DNA and suppresses any unwanted and uncontrolled cell growth as a result of changes or mutations occurring in DNA with each cell division cycle. Cellular senescence is yet another evolutionary adaptation found among naked mole-rats that provides them an effective form of anticancer mechanism, prevents damaged cells from dividing in an uncontrolled and autonomous fashion and developing into cancer. Further they secrete a complex "super sugar" that stops cells from clumping together and forming tumours. Tasmanian devils or Sarcophilus harrisii are also inherently resistant to cancer. If scientists succeed in unravelling these evolutionary protective mechanisms and secrets against dreadful diseases like cancer and decipher the much needed genetic code for its resistance, humanity shall be able to tackle the same with greater ease and confidence. 

Similarly, Giraffes have exceptionally high blood pressure or hypertension because a giraffe has to pump blood hard enough towards its head that lies 2 to 3 metres above the level of its heart so as to overcome the huge hydrostatic pressure generated by the tall column of blood in its neck. However, surprisingly this high blood pressure in giraffes does not result in severe vascular lesions, nor does it lead to heart and kidney failure, whereas in humans, the same blood pressure could prove to be catastrophic and cause severe vascular damages. Internal walls of the blood vessels in the legs of giraffes are highly thickened to withstand the increased hydrostatic pressure and are uniquely adapted to overcome the potentially dangerous rise in blood pressure when a giraffe rapidly lowers its head down. It is believed that the adaptation through natural selection has provided it the requisite protective mechanism, because hypertension develops as soon as the giraffe stands up and erects its neck soon after birth. Thus, evolutionary adaptations and selections have been the nature’s way of protection against disease. 

Many other animal species too exhibit highly evolved resistance mechanisms and adaptations towards different forms of human pathologies and disease. For instance, Burmese pythons can withstand congestive heart failure; brown bear (Ursus arctos) is immune to type-2 diabetes mellitus, obesity, neurodegenerative diseases, osteoporosis and chronic kidney disease; brown bears, Greenland sharks, jellyfish, rockfish, turquoise killifish, ocean quahog and naked mole rats age very slowly whereas elephant seals are resistant to ischemic heart disease. Scientists from several reputed universities of the world are working on these evolutionary resistant mechanisms using pioneering bioinformatic modelling to investigate the possible molecular interactions between different genes in these animal species and find out the secrets to their intrinsic disease resistance. A deep understanding of evolutionary biology and evolutionary medicine can enhance the biological understanding of disease and lead us to a unique perspective on how evolution can affect human health and disease. Evolutionary medicine applies the principles of evolutionary biology to health and disease and integrates evolution with medicine. It is sometimes referred to as Darwinian Medicine that has significantly contributed to a greater understanding of topics paramount to human health including aging, reproductive health, immune function, infectious disease, cancer, behavioural disorders and mental health, microbiomes, veterinary medicine, inflammation and diet. Thus, a deeper understanding of immunology and molecular biology clubbed with genomics and artificial intelligence can immensely help us unravel the nature’s secrets behind causation as well as curation of disease. 

George Christopher Williams, an American evolutionary biologist was the first to apply evolutionary theory to health in the context of senescence. His 1957 paper entitled, “Pleiotropy, Natural Selection, and the Evolution of Senescence” is believed to be one of the most pioneering and influential works in 20th century evolutionary biology. "Evolutionary biology and the treatment of signs and symptoms of infectious disease", the paper published by Paul Ewald in 1980 and the paper of Williams and Nesse published in 1991 entitled, "The Dawn of Darwinian Medicine" were key developments in this field that led to the publication of another book entitled, “Why We Get Sick”. If humanity succeeds in decoding the secrets of risk elevation and protection for various diseases that are deeply embedded inside our genes, day will not be far when modern medicines will become redundant and might be largely replaced by gene editing techniques. Gene editing or genome engineering is a group of techniques that allows the scientists to change a living organism's DNA, thus allowing genetic material to be added, deleted, translocated or altered at specified locations in the genome. As on date, one of the biggest demerits of this technology is that the insertion of DNA into the host genome could lead to impairment or dysfunction of some other gene within that organism. The way we use grafting techniques in plants and grow flowers or fruits of different varieties on the same tree, genetic engineering or gene editing could also be used for adding a gene from one species to another organism from the same or different species to produce a particular desirable characteristic or trait. This technique is already being used in research and industry and applied to the development of cancer therapies, brewing yeasts, genetically modified plants and livestock and much more.

A comprehensive and systematic mapping of genomes across full diversity of life and species is direly required to identify animal cell, tissue, organ and gene model systems for understanding disease vulnerability, resistance, and counter-resistance that could lead to the development of novel and innovative therapeutic approaches for the treatment of disease. Dynamics of the evolutionary medicine could guide us towards novel clinical approaches that target the development of treatment resistance in cancers, lifestyle and degenerative disorders as well as antimicrobial resistance. The insight that many modern human pathologies like obesity result from mismatches between the ecologies in which we have evolved and our modern environments can have significant implications on public health policies, disease identification, prevention and treatment. Additionally evolutionary principles could also be used to understand and address various aspects of human behaviour that create impediments in biomedical innovation and public health like vaccine hesitancy (Ref: Natterson-Horowitz B, et al. The future of evolutionary medicine: sparking innovation in biomedicine and public health. Front Sci 2023;1:997136).

One of the biggest health challenges of contemporary times is antimicrobial resistance that is also believed to be a part of evolution and therefore by applying evolutionary insights to antimicrobial drug resistance we can spark transformational innovations that could be instrumental in saving human lives. An excellent example of such evolutionary approach could be the discovery of evolution-proof treatment regimens for HIV and tuberculosis. It is a well-known fact that antibiotics alter the biodiversity of microbial communities and the presence of many types of antimicrobial resistance genes in soil are affected by agricultural, livestock and other human activities. Detection of antimicrobial resistance genes (resistome) in bacteria isolated from soil and drain samples from distant lands has led to the inference that antimicrobial resistance is a part of evolution and therefore can be tackled through evolutionary biology and medicine alone. Therefore, there is need to explore all dimensions and facets of evolutionary medicine followed by their application in proper understanding of the etiology and pathogenesis of disease as well as their diagnosis, prevention, treatment and management in a proactive manner. With full mapping of human genome, transcriptome, proteome, metabolome as well as microbiome in addition to the advent of new age technologies like artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, robotics, nanotechnology,  immunology, molecular biology, stem cell technology, gene therapy, computational biology, bio-informatics, cheminformatics, nuclear and bio-physics, cell culture and in-vitro fertilization, sophistication and modernization of disease and drug therapy management and patient care will become a reality soon.

(Author teaches at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences)

Professors of Practice

 Professor of Practice scheme of UGC will lead to an overall improvement in the quality, employability and outcomes of higher education in India and is therefore a welcome step of the government

University Grants Commission, New Delhi has notified guidelines for engaging “Professors of Practice” in higher education institutions, in the month of October, 2022 in consonance with the recommendations of National Education Policy, 2020. Main objectives of this scheme are to boost industry-academia interaction and address burgeoning skill-gap and supply-demand gap in our higher education sector by developing courses and curricula that meet industry demands as well as societal needs and enabling academicians to work in communion with industry experts on joint research projects, outreach, extension and consultancy services that will be mutually beneficial to both of them. It seeks to invite distinguished experts and persons of eminence from diverse fields and give them an opportunity to contribute towards experiential learning, applied research, practical training, upskilling, entrepreneurship and mentoring of students. Through this initiative it is desired to bring professional expertise from the industry into the academic institutions through a new category of positions called “Professor of Practice”. This will help in bringing real world practices and experiences into the class rooms through lab-based practicals, computer-based simulations, field-based practices and industry-based internships, besides augmenting the faculty resources in higher education institutions. In turn, both industry and society will benefit from trained graduates equipped with relevant skills, competencies and knowledge. 

Through this scheme eminent experts from the industry working at senior administrative and managerial levels for more than fifteen years at a stretch and those with significant contributions and skills in production, marketing, research and development, finance, communication, human resource management, journalism, performing and fine arts, literature, judiciary, defence, bureaucracy, hotel management, engineering, science, technology, entrepreneurship, commerce, social sciences, community and rural development etc can be designated as Professors of Practice in higher education institutions for a period ranging anywhere between one to four years and subsequently engaged to teach the students and transfer their skills and practical knowledge to them against consolidated emoluments to be fixed through mutual consensus and on the basis of teaching workload. Up to ten percent of the sanctioned strength of teaching faculty of an institution can comprise the professors of practice and their number will be over and above the total sanctioned staff strength of the institution. This way teaching pedagogy would be largely based on experiential, problem-solving, practice and case-based learning. Students would learn a lot from the lifetime experiences of these professors and will get to understand the real-life situations, problems and challenges experienced by them as well as the means and methods to deal with them. Classroom theories and research would translate into practice and students would be in a better position to meet the contemporary demands of the industry and dynamic job markets of the world. 

It is said that practice makes a man perfect and an ounce of practice is more worthy than tons of preaching. Knowledge actually has no meaning unless it is practiced and practice means to perform, over and over again in the face of all obstacles and adversities. Times have gone by when teachers would endlessly teach and preach without bringing their theories into practice and without demonstrating the real-life problems and challenges in executing the lessons learnt in a classroom. Professor of practice scheme essentially aims at transforming higher education by focusing on skill-based learning with a view to meet needs of the industry, modern society and economy. As per India Skills Report of 2022, the widening skill gap in Indian higher education is the major reason for rising unemployment. It has revealed that among eight million graduates passing out every year only 50,000 are equipped with much required ‘future skills’. According to a 2019 NASSCOM survey, India produces 15 lakh engineering graduates every year, however, only 2.5 lakh of them succeed in getting jobs in the core engineering industry. Similarly, another survey by “Aspiring Minds” reported that 80 per cent of Indian engineers were unemployed in 2019. A mismatch has also emerged between the skills that the industry needs, such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics, and what is actually being taught in the classrooms, leading to a supply-demand gap in talent acquisition. As a result of the Govt. of India’s added emphasis upon skill development over the past few years, overall employability of Indian graduates has increased from 40.44% in 2017 to 50.3% in 2023 as per India Skills Report. 

Skill development has been identified within the Sustainable Development Goals framework as SDG Goal 8 entitled, “Decent work and Economic Growth”, that reflects the need to increase economic productivity, reduce unemployment and devise development-oriented policies with a special focus on women and youth in rural areas. Census 2011 was indicative of the imminent ‘demographic dividend’ in India by the year 2020 with 65% Indians under the age of 35, thus making India the youngest country in the world. This was seen as an advantage to meet the demand for 109.73 million skilled workers across India by the year 2022 (NSDC, 2014). However, National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) data reflects that out of the 470 million working age population, only 10% receive some kind of training or access to skilled employment opportunities in India. This clearly indicates a largescale demand-supply gap in the skill development avenues. Moreover, demographic dividend could even lead to demographic disadvantage as the large number of unskilled and semi-skilled youth population forming base of the labour force within the country could end up in low productivity and lower wages as a fall out of this skill gap. In order to bridge these gaps, skill development has been made one of the national priorities by the government in the last decade and positive changes have been witnessed in India’s skill development framework. Professor of Practice scheme of the University Grants Commission is meant to address this skill-gap and supply-demand gap by inculcating right kind of skillsets among our youth and harnessing their potential to be industry-ready by the time they graduate from their colleges and universities. 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA started appointing Professors and Associate Professors of Practice way back in the year 1997. Other top academic institutions like Harvard, Yale, Princeton and Columbia University also have rosters of leading practitioners, many of whom teach on part-time basis. Early this year Columbia University engaged Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former U.S. Secretary of State, as professor of practice at its School of International and Public Affairs. However, this scheme has been introduced for the first time in India as a follow-up of the implementation of NEP-2020 with a view to promote internships, industry visits, apprenticeship, mentorship, innovation, entrepreneurship and start-up culture in our higher education institutions. Though foreign institutions allow serving and retired teaching faculty too to serve as professors of practice, in India it has been for the time being restricted to experienced and senior level experts from the field and industry with a view to give them an opportunity to transfer their knowledge, skills, competencies and expertise to the students even if they do not possess regular academic qualifications like PG or Ph.D. and do not have any scientific publications to their credit as a result of which they might feel constrained to enter an academic institution and interact with the students. Therefore, to begin with this scheme has been restricted only for industry personnel in India and with the passage of time it might get extended to serving and retired teaching faculty as well. However, at present focus is only on actual practitioners in the field. 

Higher education institutions intending to implement this scheme have to constitute a committee of two senior professors from within and one from outside the institution that will invite or accept nominations from the field and industry experts and scrutinize them on the basis of their requirements and will subsequently engage them as PoPs with due approval of their statutory bodies like academic and executive councils. Before setting out on this path colleges and universities shall have to identify the programmes where there is need to engage PoPs and prioritize them on their need-basis. Suitable emoluments have to be fixed through mutual consultation for such appointees and their services have to be availed for the required period of time. Engagement of PoPs could be funded either by the industry or by the higher education institutions or as the case may be, they might even choose to work on honorary basis. Importance of this scheme can be gauged from the fact that there could be no better person to teach journalism than a chief editor who has been successfully publishing a reputed newspaper or a chef who has been working in a five-star hotel or a judge who has been serving in a high court or sessions court or an agriculturist who has been growing and supplying food or a musician who has been performing successfully for more than fifteen years. They will be well-versed with all the pros and cons, real-life problems, issues and challenges confronted in that particular field on day-to-day basis and therefore the best resource persons to learn that subject from. This will not snatch anything away from the regular teaching faculty working on substantive basis in our academic institutions because the presence of professors of practice at the campuses will not affect their career or promotion prospects and on the contrary, they will get an opportunity to network with the industry. In nutshell, Professor of Practice scheme will lead to an overall improvement in the quality, employability and outcomes of higher education in India and is therefore a highly welcome step of the government. 

(Author is Director, Centre for Career Planning and Counselling, University of Kashmir. This article is based on the views expressed by the author during a panel discussion organized by ClinMed Research Solutions, Bengaluru on this topic on May 31,2023. Views expressed are authors own and not necessarily of the institution that he works for.)

Preparing youth for the corporate world

Imparting industry-oriented soft skills among graduates and training them to face online tests and corporate interviews for placements has become a need of the hour

While the youth of Jammu and Kashmir have been doing exceptionally well in every sphere of life and have been proving their mettle by scoring well in their examinations, appearing successfully in national level competitive examinations, securing admissions for higher studies in higher educational institutions of national and international repute, bringing back laurels by excelling in their studies and offering their valuable services in national and multi-national corporations all across the world, yet it has been observed during campus recruitment drives and corporate interviews that a vast majority of our graduates and post-graduates lack some essential soft skills like the skills of problem-solving, critical thinking, effective communication, decision-making, creative thinking, interpersonal relationship, self-awareness, empathy, coping with stressful situations and emotions. Therefore, apart from imparting training to our students in their own streams of knowledge and teaching them curricular contents, we also need to lay equal emphasis upon honing and inculcating soft skills related to confidence-building, time management, self-management, mannerism, ambition, focus, common sense, situational awareness, enthusiasm, optimism and empathy. Not only our higher education institutions but our high schools too need to work on building these soft skills among their students. 

Nowadays corporates are looking for professional, qualified and trained human resource who possess these twenty first century life and work skills including the ability to work with a team in a collaborative, coherent and congenial manner, ability to communicate effectively with colleagues and customers, ability to solve problems and take decisions at the spur of the moment, ability to interact with business partners and other stakeholders professionally, ability to face all hurdles and challenges and complete given assignments well in time. Thus, in addition to the technical, managerial or non-technical tasks assigned to them they need to possess these soft skills in order to be productive, goal-oriented and successful in a sustainable manner. Subject-specific knowledge alone does not suffice in contemporary job markets. Job aspirants need to possesses necessary emotional intelligence and cognitive abilities to work in a multi-member, cross-disciplinary ecosystem that might be ethnically, technically, geographically and culturally distinct and diverse in nature. 

With a view to prepare our students to face the challenges of clearing online tests and appearing in corporate interviews for securing their placements, Centre for Career Planning and Counselling of the University of Kashmir is contemplating to launch a massive upskilling programme for our students in collaboration with Tata Strive (initiative under Tata Trust) - Google Scholarship Certification Programme, Tata Consultancy Services - Youth Employment Programme, Bitwise IT Orientation Programme and Finishing School Skill Development Programme of Mission Youth, J&K. These training programmes will be absolutely free for the students and will be primarily aimed at providing training to our graduates in communication skills, foundational life and work skills, logic, reasoning and cognitive abilities, quantitative aptitude besides other soft skills. Tata Strive in partnership with Google has launched a free skilling program on high demand digital skills for youth that will provide a golden opportunity to them to upskill themselves for gaining more livelihood opportunities in IT industry. This will be in addition to an ongoing Youth Employment Programme run in collaboration with Tata Consultancy Services, Mumbai during which online weekend classes were started last year for engineering students of IoT, Zakura and North Campus, Baramulla. This year this programme will be extended to non-engineering and MCA students of the main and satellite campuses of the University of Kashmir too. Main focus of this programme has been on building communication skills of the students free of any costs. Well qualified, trained and experienced experts are engaged for imparting training to our students under these programmes through virtual platforms. 

Finishing School Skill Upgradation Programme in collaboration with Mission Youth, J&K is also being contemplated for both engineering and non-engineering students of the University of Kashmir and its satellite campuses. Major thrust during this programme will be on building essential language and IT proficiency skills among our graduates. During this programme, sessions will be held on CV writing, profile and capacity building, English speaking, appearing in corporate interviews, opportunities for higher studies and scholarships within and outside India, interpersonal and leadership skills. Ultimate aim is that our graduating youth should be well-equipped to face the challenges of the highly competitive and demanding job markets and should be second to none in securing high-package placements in top-ranking industries. However, this mission cannot be accomplished alone by the Centre for Career Planning and Counselling. Each and every department of the University shall have to participate in these programmes with missionary zeal and enthusiasm. Departments need to rope in experts from their own relevant industries for training their graduates in their related fields of knowledge and expertise. They need to create more opportunities for their students for internships, apprenticeships, industrial visits, exposure tours and hands-on training in their relevant industrial units. 

Under corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives many renowned corporate houses are ready to fund such skill enhancement activities at schools, colleges and universities. Only thing needed is the will to approach them with novel and innovative ideas and concrete action plans in these areas for liberal funding. Pertinently, community-based transformational initiatives have been mandated by the Government of India under Corporate Social Responsibility under Section 135 of The Companies Act 2013 for socio-economic development of the society, that makes qualifying Indian companies answerable to the government about their CSR expenditures. All such companies that have a net worth of Rs. 500 crores or more, or an annual turnover of Rs. 1000 crores or more, or generate an annual profit of Rs. 5 crores or more come under the ambit of CSR initiatives that include a wide range of activities for eradicating hunger, poverty and malnutrition, promoting education, gender equality, protection of ecology and environment, protection of national heritage, art and culture etc. In the financial year 2021 as many as 1619 companies listed as CSR contributors in the country spent an amount of Rs. 8828 crores which was much less as compared to a total of 22531 companies spending an amount of Rs. 24688 crores in the year 2019-2020 as a result of COVID-19 outbreak in 2020. Some of the big CSR contributors in India include ITC, Tata Group, Godrej, Infosys, Wipro, Ambuja Cement, Ultratech Cement, Mahindra & Mahindra, Hindustan Lever, Tata Chemicals, Jubilant Life Sciences, Vedanta and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. 

From the ramparts of Red Fort, Prime Minister of India Sh. Narendra Modi said on August 15, 2014 that “skilling is building a better India. If we have to move India towards development, then skill development should be our mission”, following which a flagship scheme of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE) was launched on July 15, 2015 namely “Skill India (Kaushal Bharat, Kushal Bharat) campaign” under the National Skill Development Mission of India that is managed by the National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) of India with a target of training more than 50 crore people in various skills by the end of this year. Under this banner, a “Soft Skills & Personality Development Online Course” has been designed for improving the soft skills and personality of an individual which is a necessity in today's competitive world. In this program learners are taught various presentation skills, communication skills, team skills, interview skills, leadership skills, time management skills and customer service skills. This course is being conducted by CSC (Common Service Centre), Govt. of India and the certificates are awarded by CSC, Digital India in association with NSDC. Students need to take up these courses as per their own convenience against a nominal fee. Main objective of this skill certification course is to enable a large number of youth to take up industry-relevant skill training that will help them in securing a better livelihood for themselves. Other landmark initiatives of the Govt. of India for skill development include National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship 2015, Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) scheme, Jan Shikshan Sansthan (JSS), National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS), SANKALP, Aspirational Skilling Abhiyan, Rozgar Mela, Indian Institute of Skills (IISs), Skill Loan Scheme etc. 

Last but not the least soft skill training has to be made a part and parcel of the curriculum of each and every programme offered by our colleges and universities. Then only students, teachers and other stakeholders will take it seriously. Since National Education Policy-2020 also aims at preparing all-round, holistically trained and fully empowered multi-disciplinary individuals at our higher educational institutions, it becomes our prime responsibility to offer everything that is needed in the contemporary times by our students. Merely teaching subject-specific content will not suffice to empower them and instil necessary confidence among them for facing the emerging challenges of the global job markets. Therefore, our policy makers need to pool their wisdom in this direction and reframe our curricula paving way for comprehensive skill enhancement and capacity-building of our graduates and post-graduates. NEP-2020 could prove to be an effective guiding framework in that direction. Pertinent to mention that the Skill Development Department of the Govt.  of J&K has already taken a host of initiatives under centrally sponsored schemes (CSS), polytechnic schemes, PPP schemes and Skill Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement (STRIVE) scheme for skill enhancement of our youth. University of Kashmir has also taken several initiatives for skill development of students that includes establishment of the Centre for Capacity Building and Skill Development, Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship at IoT, Zakura and the Centre for Career Planning and Counselling and has devised robust policies and plans for sustainable skill enhancement of its students. 

(Author is Director, Centre for Career Planning and Counselling, University of Kashmir)

Building an egalitarian society through education based on universal human values

National Education Policy 2020 envisages to impart value-based education with a view to actualize full human potential required for building an equitable and just society and promoting national development

Happiness essentially implies to be in a state of complete harmony with one’s own self, one’s family, friends, colleagues and society at large and with one’s nature and surroundings as well. Real happiness is achieved only through natural acceptance and continuity of happiness is possible only with synergy and complete harmony at all levels. That alone will yield permanence in happiness rather than temporary excitement that is short-lived and unsustainable. Similarly, pleasure can also be obtained temporarily through favourable sensation, attention and appreciation but cannot be sustained for long. Prosperity is not same as possession of wealth and material goods. Though physical assets are very much required in life, they alone do not suffice for the lasting happiness and prosperity of human beings therefore dependence on physical assets can’t be reliable. Whereas physical needs alone are sufficient for animals they are not sufficient for human beings. Fundamental difference between animals and human beings is that for human beings relationships are as important as physical needs. Happiness and prosperity are the basic human aspirations that need to be sustainable and unless they are long-lasting and sustainable, they cannot be called as happiness or prosperity in real sense. Material gains can bring temporary excitement and joy but not lasting happiness and prosperity which is only possible through complete harmony at all levels. 

In consonance with one of the primary objectives of the National Education Policy 2020 (NEP-2020) that seeks to instil deep-rooted pride in being Indian, not only in thought but also in spirit, intellect and deeds as well as to develop knowledge, skills and values that support responsible commitment towards human rights, sustainable development and  global well-being, All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) embarked on its journey to develop a comprehensive model curriculum for Universal Human Values (UHVs) that is based on the principles of holistic education aimed at enhancing integrity, dedication, inclusiveness, commitment and harmony among the learners. In its 49th meeting held on 14th March 2017, AICTE approved a mandatory three-week long Student Induction Program (SIP) based on Universal Human Values (UHVs) in order to to prepare newly admitted undergraduate students for the new stage in their life by facilitating a smooth transition from their home and school environment into the college and university environment through various discussions and activities. An appropriate Faculty Development Programme (FDP) was also designed and proposed with a view to prepare the faculty members of colleges and universities for offering this SIP. For this very purpose, AICTE has formed a National Coordination Committee for Student Induction (NCC-IP) and has impressed upon every technical institution of higher education to prepare UHV Faculty in the ratio of 1:20 (1 faculty for every 20 newly admitted students). 

Universal Human Values (UHVs) impart pre-tested and validated foundational skills that are universal, rational, verifiable, all-encompassing and leading to harmony i.e., wellbeing of all. This model has been successfully applied in more than 40 universities in 10 states over the last 17 years and since 2017 all across the nation by AICTE. Holistic, value-based education is required to prepare graduates with desirable attributes that include moral education on values, leading to the development of a holistic and humane world vision; universal human values of truth, love and compassion: Indian constitutional values of justice, liberty, equality and fraternity; human rights, sustainable development and sustainable living as well as global well-being. It is believed that Universal Human Values can lead to a holistic and humane world vision and values in tune with the aspirations articulated in NEP-2020. Earlier the general belief used to be that “values cannot be taught, they are caught”, however, experts in the field are now fully convinced that values can be self-discovered through a continuous process of self-exploration and also that they should not only be taught at home or at the school level but need to be incorporated in the higher education curriculum too. Universal Human Values are based on the premise that overall purpose of education is to enable a human being to live a fulfilling and rewarding life, in complete harmony with oneself and with his family, society and nature. UHV-based education enforces a humane world view, vision and perspective that in turn reinforces human values and culture leading to the development of necessary skills for living with acceptable human conduct and ultimately leading to the emergence of a humane society and civilization. 

As per NEP-2020, main purpose of the education system is to develop good human beings capable of rational thought and action, possessing compassion and empathy, courage and resilience, scientific temper and creative imagination, with sound ethical moorings and values. It aims at producing engaged, productive, and contributing citizens for building an equitable, inclusive, and pluralistic society as envisaged by our Constitution. The UHV effort is a continuation of the age-old tradition of self-inquiry, self-exploration, self-discovery and self-evolution. The full potential of every human being is achieved by reaching the level of human consciousness and ethical human conduct that would result into lasting happiness and prosperity at the individual level. Such individuals will, very naturally, contribute towards the development of a humane society (ensuring well-being of all), which is equitable and just. Attributes of such individuals would include holistic vision of life, socially responsible behaviour, environmentally responsible work, ethical human conduct, having competence and capabilities for maintaining health and hygiene besides appreciation and aspiration for excellence and gratitude for all. UHV seeks to build an equitable and just society in which the well-being of all is assured. The role of education is to facilitate the development of the competence to live with desirable human conduct by ensuring right understanding, right feeling and right set of skills. Unfortunately, our current education system is focussing only on the skills and not really paying attention to values. Instead of the right feeling, unhealthy competition (feeling of opposition) is getting promoted and instead of skills for prosperity, skills for exploitation are getting promoted. 

Three-week long student induction programme (SIP) is intended to prepare newly admitted undergraduate students for the new stage in their life. During this programme students are taught about the fundamental concepts of trust, respect, mutual understanding, competence and team-work. They are taught that trust is the foundation of any relationship that can only be gained with the feeling that the other person wants to make me happy & prosperous. Only when we trust the intentions of other people, we can establish a relationship with them and prepare a joint program with them based on right evaluation of our mutual competence. In case the other person is lacking in competence, I will make a sincere effort to improve his competence level once he is engaged in a professional relationship with me. Further if I lack competence, I will be ready to take help from the other person to improve my competence. I will evaluate the other person on the basis of his competence. I will not assume the lack of competence in the other person to be the lack of trust in him and thus feel opposed to him. Right evaluation with a feeling of trust yields respect whereas under-evaluation, over-evaluation or wrong evaluation brings disrespect. Discrimination and differentiation also bring disrespect whereas the recognition that the other is like me and we are complementary to each other brings mutual respect. The only difference is in our level of understanding. If the other has more understanding, he is more responsible than me and I must be committed to understand from the other. If I have more understanding, I am more responsible than the other and I must be fully committed to facilitate understanding in the other once the other is engaged in a professional relationship with me. 

United National Sustainable Development Goal No. 16 envisages to promote  peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels. In consonance with this SDG, UHVs envisage that for living with a feeling of continuous fulfilment three essential requirements are trust, love and compassion that can only be achieved with the understanding and feeling of relatedness, undividedness, connectedness, coexistence. The right understanding forms the basis of universal human values and facilitates transformation towards a holistic worldview or the ‘human consciousness’. In that sense, this three-week long course is an opportunity to reflect on the need and scope of living in harmony. The target is not just personal transformation, but also the transformation at the societal level. Right understanding provides the basis for a just and humane society. Therefore, it is suggested that all higher education institutions must expose their students, staff and teachers to this Universal Human Values course developed by the AICTE and incorporate it in each and every curriculum too as a three-credit foundation course for all second year (third and fourth semester) students. Only after understanding universal human values (role of human being in existence) can they be in harmony within, and participate meaningfully with other human beings (in family and society) as well as with the rest of nature (the environment, of which s/he is an integral part). So that emphasizes the need for universal human values. Furthermore, moral education in the context of one’s own religion and belief system will also supplement and complement the teaching of UHVs since all religions essentially teach the same values of kindness, compassion, peace, harmony, benevolence, mercy and universal love. 

(This article is based on the learning gained from a five-day online UHV course attended by the author with significant inputs taken from Universal Human Values document prepared by NC-UHV (AICTE) and NCC-IP (AICTE))