2 Jamia alumni who helped people quit tobacco honoured
Namit Kumar and Zuhaib Chowdhary who have a B.S.W., batch 2009-2012, from the department of social work of Jamia Millia Islamia have been conferred with the ‘Best Counselor’s Award’ this month out of 46 counselors in the department, writes Sameer Ansari. More interestingly to know, Kumar who topped his batch 2009 – 2012 during B.S.W. in Jamia, got the best counselor’s award for the last month as well.
This is a prestigious award of the institution given to highly dedicated, consistent, and conscientious employees. No doubt, Kumar and Zuhaib have helped so many people quitting tobacco across north India during their tenure at the institution. They receive calls from states like Kashmir, Punjab, U.P., Haryana, Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and even Odisha and provide behavioral counseling to restrain cravings and to help people quitting tobacco. They help people in quitting all kinds of smoking/smokeless tobacco products. The rate of quitting tobacco has been improved from the previous years with the tireless efforts of counselors at NTQLS. During the talk, Namit highlighted effective listening, patience, and unconditional regard to the client, while Zuhaib mentioned the importance of home remedies like honey, lemon juice, regular aerobic exercise, and citric fruits for detoxification of the body along with the systematic follow-ups. They set a quit date for each of their caller and make a call on the defined date and time according to the follow-up registry.
Both had been conferred with the awards by director of the institute Prof. Rajkumar who is also head of pulmonary medicine, faculty of medical sciences, University of Delhi, head of National Centre of Respiratory Allergy, Asthma & Immunology (NCRAAI), head of Tobacco Cessation Clinic (TCC), Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute, Delhi, and coordinator, National Tobacco Quitline Services (NTQLS), ministry of health and family welfare, the government of India.
Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute is a premier research Institute funded by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, and maintained by the University of Delhi. It is known for the treatments of chest diseases while it also operates the National Tobacco Quitline Services (NTQLS) under the supervision of Prof. Rajkumar, director of the institute. NTQLS is a nationally sponsored scheme of the ministry of health and family welfare of government of India which provides free telephonic counseling services to all people through its quitline 1800-11-2356. It was started in 2016 with the immense efforts of Prof. Rajkumar and its first batch of counselors.
Issued by Jamia researcher (department of Psychology) who is close to Namit Kumar and Zuhaib Chowdhary.
The write-up has not been filed and edited by OT staff.
