Drugs
addict sons, make widows in
Punjab By Priyanka Bhardwaj
For once Rahul Gandhi uttered the right
words when he stated an indigestible fact that
human resource potential of Punjab in the
northwest of India is being destroyed because
seven out of every 10 young men are addicted to
drugs.
The scion of India's
longest-running political dynasty had no sooner
opened his mouth, at a rally organized by National
Students University of India at Punjab University
campus in state capital of Chandigarh, than the
states' ruling Shiromani Akali Dal-Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) alliance and sundry detractors
accused him of making "derogatory, irresponsible"
public statements and demanded a public apology.
Rahul, general-secretary of the Indian
National Congress party, had merely cited from a
report prepared by the current state
regime, and also referred
to in another document of Punjab government
entitled State Disaster Management Plan For
2010-11, which reads "some 73.5 per cent of
state's youth between 16 and 35 years are
confirmed drug addicts."
The plan he
mentioned reports surveys conducted by Guru Nanak
Dev University in Punjab's largest city, Amritsar.
It also quotes Raj Pal Meena, an ex-head of
Anti-Narcotics Task Force of Punjab: "Punjab is
teetering on the edge of an extraordinary human
crisis, with an inordinately large number of
youngsters hooked on to marijuana, opium and
heroin, in addition to imbibing a range of
prescriptive tablets."
Flaying Rahul's
remarks on the high incidence of drug abuse -
especially in pinds (villages) along the
border with Pakistan - Harcharan Singh Bains, an
adviser to Punjab's Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh
Badal, called him a "national joke". Badal accused
Rahul of using "politically motivated diversionary
tactic to cover up internal contradictions and
infighting in Punjab unit of Congress.''
Punjab Youth Congress president Vikram
Chowdhary pointed out that Badal, who directly
controls the Border Security Force, had failed to
curb trans-border smuggling of arms, drugs and
fake currency.
Such vehement denial of
bitter reality by ruling forces has not gone down
well with activists, health workers and many
affected families who cite a 2009 note from Chief
Election Commissioner SY Quaraishi for bringing
attention to the menace. The note read: "We've
encountered problems with liquor during elections
in almost all states. But drug abuse is unique
only to Punjab. This is really of concern."
Public health worker Mandeep Sandhu said
it would pay well to remember that concerns over
the statistics for drug abuse have been behind
recent innumerable police raids and the state's
decision to set up addiction centers at each of
its eight central jails.
Punjab, which is
situated between two major illicit opium producing
centers in Asia - the Golden Crescent and Golden
Triangle, functions as a transshipment point for
heroin destined for Europe. Over time it has
turned into a small local market for illicit drugs
like raw opium, smack, heroin, synthetic drugs
like morphine, pethidine, codeine and psychotropic
substances like diazepam.
Using the term
'drug-terrorism', anti-narco sleuths in the city
of Chandigarh say that with the arrest of Punjabi
militancy after it had peaked in eighties and
early nineties, terrorists and global drug cartels
operating in neighboring lands took to smuggling
charas (cannabis resin), methaqualone, ephedrine,
acetic anhydride and amphetamine into India using
increased Indo-Pak cross border civilian traffic
as a conduit.
Each year the drug trade is
estimated to have increased by about 30% to 40%
and while the interception of the Afghani smack is
never more than 10%. Punjab alone accounts for 60%
of the country's drug recoveries: Just last year
in a single recovery the state police caught
siblings carrying close 50 kilograms, at an
estimated value of 2.5 billion rupees (about
US$46.4 million) in Phagwara district.
The
deterrence of three years imprisonment and a fine
of 100,000 rupees for violation of the Drugs &
Cosmetics Act of 1940 has proved inadequate to
curb the lure of immense black market profits from
sale of these illicit substances, profits which
helps explain the mushrooming of dozens of illegal
chemist laboratories in almost all villages, even
if no health clinic is present, that sell drugs
without prescriptions to those who cannot afford
heroin.
With the successes of the "Green
Revolution" and immigration to Western countries,
an entire generation of educated or semi-educated
youth are no longer interested in cultivating
agrarian lands, and with no economic opportunities
to absorb them they were easily drawn into vicious
grip of narco-substances.
An exploration
of the Punjabi social fabric shows the deadly
shadow of drugs has eclipsed the vibrancy once
associated with high-spirited and sturdy youth of
this wealthy state and threatens national and food
security. Fear of the spread of the HIV virus and
AIDS among drug abusers using syringes, associated
with this abuse.
Psychologist Jagpreet
Kaur recalls the distraught parents of Jat Sikh, a
drug-addicted son, 35 years of age, and sole
inheritor of more than 35 acres of farm land in
Amritsar district, who lies in dazed stupor all
day, fails to recognize them and refuses to
undergo substance abuse treatment.
Surjit
Singh of Modhae village relates how his friend
Harkamaljit's drug habit drove him to consume
about a dozen prescription tablets and cough
syrups in a day and led to violent behavior when
he was unable to obtain supplies.
Residents in the border town of Taran
Taran say that sometimes amlis (addicts),
apparent from deep sunken eyes and skeletal frame,
beg for money or have been caught trying to sell
their blood to procure their daily dose of drugs.
High school kids in the area revealed that
drugs are easy to obtain outside schools and
colleges or in villages, where some families sell
drugs for an extra buck, $20 for 5 grams, and also
supply a wild grass called bhuki that grows in the
state.
Dr Debasish Basu, of the Drug
De-addiction Centre at Postgraduate Institute of
Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education &
Research at Chandigarh, said that centers are not
just ill-equipped but have been found to mint
money by supplying contraband material in lieu of
money or falsely promising de-addiction treatment
using laser therapy.
Of late there have
been efforts to keep the youth away from
anti-social activities and drugs as during a visit
to Taran Taran, last July, one found villages in
outskirts joining hands with charities to stage
plays and train the youth in traditional sports
and art forms such as gatka, a weapons-based
martial art dating from the late 17th century.
Punarjyot and Bir Khalsa Gatka Dal (gatka
coaching academies) have had small successes to
turn addicts off drugs and on to healthy pursuits,
but the magnitude of problem requires concerted
efforts through multiple strategies.
As
Punjab faces the loss an entire generation to
killer drugs, it would appear high time for India
to act on the warning bell that Rahul has rung
loud and clear. The alternative is the grim fate
of Maqboolpura in Amritsar. Once known for its
affluence, drug abuse has claimed male members of
almost every household, and it has now become a
"widow village''.
Priyanka
Bhardwaj is a New Delhi-based freelance
journalist. She can be reached at
priyanka2508@yahoo.co.in.
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