“Drug
abuse on the rise among youth in Kashmir.”
“Why
has India’s Punjab fallen into the grip of drug abuse?”
It
is astonishing how widespread the problem is. One estimate says that more than
two-thirds of Punjab’s households have at least one addict in the family.
Across
the state, from villages in the lush green countryside to bustling towns and
cities, young men huddle together in cemeteries, abandoned buildings or plain
fields, smoking, snorting or shooting up.”
-
BBC
News, 2 February, 2017
Twenty
five years after the report was released in 1992 ABVA is releasing digitized
version of the report “This Sugar is Bitter” on the status of chemical
dependents and HIV infection in India. The report (word count 36,124) was
prepared by a nine member team of ABVA; while two members had done a fact
finding on the plight of intravenous drug users and HIV positive persons in
Manipur, North East India. The
report is as relevant today as it was when the print version was first brought
out. The above two quotes bear testimony to this.
The
first part of the report documents in detail the role of culture, heritage,
religion and the drug users; the role of law, police and judiciary; the report
has a full length chapter on the nature and treatment of chemical dependency;
it documents real life case histories of drug users. Another chapter details
the societal attitude towards drug users; a section of the report deals with
AIDS and the IV drug users.
Part
two of the report deals with the actual findings of the fact finding team which
visited Manipur, a state in North East India. The team left for Manipur on
29.02.1992 and returned back to Delhi on 15.03.1992 visiting Dimapur
(Nagaland), Guwahati (Assam) and Calcutta (West-Bengal). The report details the
geographical and political context; and the armed insurgency in the North East;
the role of PLA and the NSCN; the role of paramilitary and military forces and
the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA).
Part
three of the report details a twenty point charter of demands made on the
Government of India which is enlisted below:
“ABVA urges the
Government of India to take cognizance of the following demands and take urgent
steps towards their implementation.
1.
Repeal
all discriminatory legislation singling out drug users. Decriminalize Chemical
dependency.
2.
Establish
a commission to document and prevent blackmail, extortion, violence and other
such actions on drug dependents at the hands of the police, judiciary and the
state administration.
3.
Encourage
the Press Council of India to issue guidelines for respectful, sensitive and
representative reporting on drug-dependents.
4.
Ensure
judgement free health education for all, an education that emphasizes the
disease concept of chemical dependence.
5.
Terminate
all forcible HIV Testing.
6.
Ensure
availability of voluntary and anonymous HIV Testing.
7.
Stop
all discrimination against recovering drug dependents, at the work place. For
active drug users, ensure adequate treatment.
8.
Stop
the requirement of certificates regarding HIV and AIDS negativity from students
and those desiring to marry (particularly those from North-East).
9.
Set
up a unit and appoint a sensitive ombudsman to receive and act upon complaints
from Drug Users/HIV positive and persons with AIDS.
10.
Release
all HIV positive persons detained in jails, vigilance homes and under house
arrest all over the country and stop further arrests of such persons.
11.
Ensure
free supply of sterile disposable needles to intravenous drug users so as to
prevent the spread of AIDS (This should be done under anonymous settings).
12.
Control
growth of illicit drug industry and requisites for the manufacture and trade of
these drugs – especially AA.
13.
Permit
Citizen groups to visit jails and mental hospitals so as to promote
understanding of the conditions of persons detained there.
14.a. Repeal
Article 13 of the Code of Ethics of The Medical Council of India under which
Drs refuse treatment to select patients. Take action on doctors or other health
personnel who refuse to treat drug-dependents, HIV positive and persons with
AIDS.
b. Provide sufficient number of gloves
and disposable syringes/needles in all medical centre throughout the country.
15.
Establish detoxification and rehabilitation centres as envisaged under
the NDPS Act.
16. Deal severely with drug smugglers and drug
barons.
17. Investigate the functioning of the existing
government funded (220) rehabilitation centres to suggest improvements and
ensure effective programmes.
18. Change government policies to de-link funding
of treatment centres for chemical
dependents with success rates of recovery, so as to prevent false reporting.
19. Constitute a group comprising professionals
from various backgrounds (including recovering individuals) to be part of
policies/decision making on the specific issue of drugs and chemical
dependency.
20. Establish a coordination unit between the
Finance, Social Welfare, Health and Chemical Ministries to deal with the
problem of drugs and of chemical dependency.”
Modern Day Opium War of Sorts
ABVA
views with concern that drug abuse is seen to be rampant amongst the youth
precisely in those very states where exists movement for autonomy/ true
federalism/ azadi/ referendum or plebiscite since 1947 or sometimes even
predating India’s independence; thus states like Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir,
Nagaland, Manipur and Assam bear the brunt of the drug problem. In Jammu and
Kashmir since the beginning of militancy in 1989 the number of drug abusers has
reportedly increased from 0.3 per one lakh population to 2.5 to 4-5 per lakh in
recent years. This is 8 to 17 times jump in the increase of drug abusers in
over a quarter century! In these states a few generations have been lost to
militancy and the consequent killings by the police/ paramilitary/ army in
encounters – genuine or fake, more often the latter. The militants in addition
are reported to have disappeared or detained lawfully or illegally or injured
in crossfire; not to speak of custodial deaths and those who are tortured at
the hands of those in charge of the security apparatus
The
fact finding team of ABVA was informed by the Young People Welfare Society,
Dimapur, Nagaland on 09.03.1992 afternoon that there is involvement of
paramilitary and military personnel in the drug smuggling from Burma into
Nagaland; that the drugs could well be used to break the movement of the youth.
Social
scientists will have to study further whether these movements are finally being
weakened by a conscious policy of the state of getting the drugs smuggled into
these states which would ensure that a generation of the youth would be
destroyed by being hooked on to the drugs. It should not appear to be a
farfetched idea since the British colonial rulers notoriously indulged in opium
wars towards legalization of the opium trade.
Read
the full report here:
AIDS Bhedbhav Virodhi Andolan
(AIDS Anti-Discrimination Movement)
New Delhi, India
