Remarkable Institution Described As Last Hope for Some

For TheBetterIndia.com, Krystelle Dsouza reported on the Akal Drug De-Addiction Centre, located in Punjab, an area which is part India and part Pakistan, with an extremely varied religious and political history that includes British colonialism. (The article, incidentally, is loaded with photos of the founder, staff members, residents, and the place itself.)
The institution is led by its founder, retired military officer Col. Dr. Rajinder Singh, age 91, who believes that compassion and steady help can bring people out of addiction. He received his professional training from Dr. Vidya Sagar, who is known as the father of Indian psychiatry, and other top practitioners at other esteemed institutions. Dsouza writes,
In the late 1980s, Singh began voluntary service at the Kalgidhar Trust — a non-profit focused on improving the lives of rural communities in North India — and was urged by its President, Shree Baba Iqbal Singh Ji to start an arm to treat youth afflicted with drug abuse.
In 2004, there wasn’t even a building, but facilities were gradually created and added until the place became a 30-bed center complete with labs, pharmacy, community hall, sports fields, and other amenities. The main building was constructed in 2007, and distinguished psychologists and psychiatrists from Germany, the USA, and other places joined the staff. The administration has had to deal with many challenges, including the opening of a liquor store nearby. It took months of interaction with many government departments, but eventually the business was made to relocate.
Co Dr. Singh’s main quality is empathy, and he is especially sensitive to the disorders that affect active duty military personnel and veterans; but has helped many others, like a teenage boy who was brought in because of an addiction to white correction ink. Then, there was a man who habitually achieved chemically-assisted euphoria by letting his pet snake bite his tongue. Withdrawal from any addictive substance is never easy, and is pretty similar the world over: headaches, total body pain, insomnia, extreme restlessness, nausea, depression, and the list goes on. Dsouza writes,
Decades ago, at the cusp of his professional journey, Singh read somewhere, ‘To be the best, you must be able to handle the worst’ and took the words to heart. The end goal of rehabilitation is moral reckoning. It is only after this, that transformation can begin.
Along with basic physical detoxification, other major features of the cure include medication, yoga, meditation, individual and group counseling, and community-building activities like volunteering in the kitchen. Healing must be both physical and spiritual. A second Akal branch has been established, and another is in the process of creation. One indication of success is that more than 10,000 patients have benefitted from Singh’s methods. Another is that former patients, having returned to their homes, refer active addicts to the center.
Another piece derived from Dsouza’s article bears the eye-catching headline, “Retired Colonel Heals Thousands of Addicts with Empathy, Yoga, and Service,” and contains an interesting incidental fact:
The Sikhs believe that to be born as a human is a result of first being born as every single other animal on Earth once…
This thought leads to speculation that might belong in the realm of science fiction (and should not be attributed to journalist Andy Corbley!) But consider this. What if, in past lives, some humans were lab rats intentionally addicted by scientists in laboratories? So when reincarnated into a human body, wouldn’t they bring along a tendency to become easily addicted? Certainly this is an unlikely theory… but science as a whole does not seem to have come any closer to deciphering why some people just seem born to be addicts, and no amount of wholesome upbringing or medical genius or psychological insight can stop them.
Written by Pat Hartman. First published January 17, 2025.
Sources:
“In Punjab, a 91-YO Colonel Is the Last Hope for Young Lives Drowning In Addiction,” TheBetterIndia.com, January 3, 2025.
“Retired Colonel Heals Thousands of Addicts with Empathy, Yoga, and Service,”
GoodNewsNetwork.org, January 10, 2025.
Image Copyright: Birds of Gilgit-Baltistan/Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic