HIGH ON ADDICTION
Shillong, Feb 22 : Nini was a football player representing the state in several tournaments. Her passion to play soccer was, however, ruined following her disqualification from the team soon after it was found that she is a drug addict.
A recovering drug addict for the past 10
years now, Nini is one of the few female drug users who have come out to
present a testimony of the discrimination and stigma she had to undergo
as a young student.
“I was stigmatised and discriminated upon
by people around me. But the journey of hope began through the love and
support I received from my family,” she said.
“Male drug users are also discriminated
upon but not as much as females. The discrimination is more in a
matrilineal society; females are looked up as homemakers and pillars of
the family,” Nini, who was into drugs for four years, added. The young
woman also said: “Addiction is not a crime. It is a disease that can be
cured. We need to fight against discrimination.”
Perhaps learning from Nini’s experience, a
demand was made here today to have a distinct female-centric
intervention programme to save the women not only from drugs, but most
importantly from the shackles of stigma and discrimination.
At a conference organised by the Voluntary
Health Association of Meghalaya, an NGO, at the Raitong building here,
participants were shocked to discover that there are currently 92 female
“injecting drug users” in and around the city who have registered with
the organisation.
From these 92 females “injecting drug users”, five have been found to be HIV-positive.
The hot spot areas in and around the city
vis-à-vis the presence of female injecting drug users include Happy
Valley, Nongmynsong, Polo, Rynjah, Pdeng shnong, Nongrim Hills, Khyndai
Lad (Police Bazar), Nongthymmai, Malki, Mawprem, Laban, Laitumkhrah,
Pynthorumkhrah and Lapalang.
These were identified under the Female Injecting Drug Users-181 project of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
The project was initially started in April
2010 with just a few female clients. During the initial period of the
project, the focus was to identify female drug users in Shillong. The
project became full-fledged in October 2011 with appointed staff and a
registered clientele of around 20.
However, project director and the
association’s member, Ronald Phanwar, said it was a difficult task to
get female drug users to register themselves under the project as the
“fear” within them of being stigmatised was a distressing factor.
“We need to have a biased intervention and
form a female-centric approach vis-à-vis drug abuse before the menace
reaches alarming heights,” Phanwar said.
Former youth leader and Nongkrem
legislator Ardent Miller Basaiawmoit, who was the chief guest at the
conference, stressed the need to build stronger families besides having a
collaborative approach to tackle the menace of drug abuse.
“People use drugs not only for pleasure.
Many resort to the practice as a means of escape. It is a matter of
serious concern as we never thought that the problem would creep into
our society,” Basaiawmoit said. He pointed out that a collaborative
venture among the social organisations and faith-based organisations was
the need of the hour.
The legislator also called upon the
government to ensure that drug peddlers are handed out severe punishment
under the various provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances Act, 1985.
The gathering was also informed that the
state social welfare department was giving final touches to the State
Drugs Policy, which has incorporated certain segments vis-à-vis female
drug users.
The conference felt that to control the
menace of drug abuse among women, convergence among all government
departments, reaching out to slum areas and street children,
collaboration between NGOs and asking the National AIDS Control
Organisation (NACO) to put in place a female-centric intervention
programme have become imperative.