Thiruvananthapuram: As children across Kerala dust off their schoolbags and step into a new academic year, they do so with fresh dreams and renewed hopes. Classrooms are being cleaned, timetables prepared, and blackboards rewritten but outside those school gates, a far more dangerous reality awaits. A war is brewing silent, systematic, and deeply sinister waged by anti-social forces who view our children not as the future of our society, but as prey.

Tomorrow’s school reopening must not be seen simply as a ceremonial return to learning. It must be recognized as the opening salvo in a battle for our children’s minds, bodies, and souls. Because while our teachers teach mathematics and literature, drug mafias are teaching addiction, cyber predators are teaching fear, and radical elements are teaching hate. The schools of Kerala must now become fortresses not only of education, but of protection.

Kerala, for all its achievements in literacy, healthcare, and human development, is now facing a dangerous infiltration. Anti-social elements have updated their playbooks they no longer lurk in dingy alleys or slums. They are now online, masked as friendly social media influencers, online gamers, YouTubers, and even fellow students. Their language is digital, their tactics psychological, and their weapons drugs, intimidation, blackmail, and emotional manipulation.

Children as young as 10 or 11 are being groomed through chat rooms, gaming lobbies, and peer circles. Once hooked with curiosity or free samples, they’re pulled into a dark spiral of addiction, distribution, or silence. There are already chilling examples of students in Class 8 or 9 being used as drug couriers, hiding synthetic narcotics in school tiffin boxes or pen drives, without even fully knowing what they’re transporting.

Summer vacation has historically been a time for rest, family, and fun. But for the drug mafia, it is open season. Children with free time and minimal supervision become ideal targets. Vacation becomes the training ground. School becomes the battleground. By the time students return to class, some are already entangled mentally and behaviorally compromised.

These networks aren’t small. Organized rackets are using students as both consumers and dealers, exploiting their fear of authority and their desire for acceptance. What begins with a puff of a vape pen ends with a ruined childhood and sometimes, a lost life.

Against this backdrop, the Kerala Police’s decision to install confidential complaint boxes in every school is a timely and crucial step. Managed by the School Protection Group (SPG) in collaboration with local police stations, these boxes will allow students to report threats, abuse, bullying, grooming, and suspicious activities without fear.

Each box will be opened in the presence of the school head and the Station House Officer once a month and initially even more frequently. The identity of the complainant will remain confidential, ensuring that fear of retaliation or shame does not silence a child’s voice. Minor issues can be resolved at the school level, but serious complaints will see swift legal and criminal follow-up.

But let’s be clear a complaint box is not a magic solution. It is only as effective as the system that supports it. Teachers must be trained to detect subtle changes in behavior, parents must stay engaged in their children’s emotional world, and the police must respond promptly and meaningfully.

This is not just about drugs. It’s also about the menace of pornography, gambling apps, sexual predators, political indoctrination, cyber-bullying, and communal radicalization. The young mind is vulnerable, and predators know it. In recent years, Kerala has seen cases of children falling into online blackmail rings, with predators threatening to leak intimate images or chats, pushing victims into silence and mental trauma.

There are children who never return to school after such encounters. There are others who continue attending, their minds shattered, their performance plummeting, their spirit broken. And the most chilling part? These incidents often happen under the very noses of families and schools.

This is not a battle the police or schools can fight alone. The entire ecosystem parents, guardians, spiritual leaders, local bodies, media, and civil society must unite. Communication at home must be open. Every parent must ask their child, “Are you okay?” and actually wait to hear the real answer. Digital devices must be monitored not just for screen time but for psychological time bombs.

The drug mafia and anti-social syndicates are well funded, tech savvy, and ruthless. But Kerala has its strength an educated society, a proactive administration, and a culture of collective action. That strength must now be harnessed with urgency.

Every child walking through the school gate tomorrow is a promise a future teacher, doctor, engineer, artist, or leader. But to let that promise flourish, we must shield it with laws, protect it with vigilance, and nurture it with truth and trust. This academic year must be remembered not just for report cards and rank lists, but for how Kerala rose up to protect its next generation from being devoured by greed, violence, and crime.

The war is real. The enemy is invisible. The cost is too high. But the children of Kerala are not alone. Let this school year begin not just with prayer, but with purpose. Not just with uniforms, but with unity. Not just with learning, but with lasting protection. Because if we lose this battle, we don’t just lose a child, we lose our future.