The conflict has claimed more than 35,000 people since 1989. A whole generation lost to hate and fear. They are today Kashmir’s lost generation; children of a conflict with no end.
By Arif Bashir
Faizan is 18 years old. Like so many other teens of his age he should have been at the threshold of life. But Faizan prefers to stand at the threshold of death. With little hope in life young Faizan loses himself in a fog of hashish smoke every day.
Royah Ali (name changed) is a middle class girl who studies in a women’s college in Srinagar. Royah has difficulty sleeping at night after a close encounter with death. Today she is addicted to sleeping pills and other drugs.
Faizan and Royah are part of Kashmir’s “lost generation” – an entire generation of youth that has grown up in a Kashmir ravaged by 20 years of turmoil. They have no real ambition, little motivation, just a preoccupation with survival. Every day.
Faizan took to drugs after his father Abdul Rahman lost his life during a protest rally in the summer of 2008. Faizan had dropped out of school in Class VIII in order to help his family. He joined a brick kiln while his father was alive. Today he numbs the pain of memory with drugs. Having landed at the psychiatric department of Soura Medical Institute a few times because of overdose, Faizan continues to smoke his life away.
Royah was in Class XI in 2007 when she, along with her friends was waiting for the bus at Lal Chowk. A massive grenade blast rocked the whole area. When she gathered herself, she found her classmate and one of her best friends, lying in a pool of blood. Her friend lost a leg and an eye.
Royah has been tormented since. To ease the pain and blur the violent images Royah took to sleeping pills. Slowly she graduated to synthetic drugs including nail polish removers, eraser fluid and heavy smoking. Royah blames her family and society. She has been in counseling but argues that her family including her elder brother had only pushed her further into hopelessness instead of helping her. “For them this is taboo. Even though I gathered courage to tell them everything, they refused to help. They are cowards and so I decided to help myself,” Royah says as matter of fact.
Desperate to overcome the addiction which she says was killing her from within Royah says she has little choice. She claims she belongs to a group of addicts who manage their fix within the college premises – “You only need nail polish, some cotton, fluid and paper……it is easy and doable in college.” Faizan and Royah are not alone in their attempt to make sense of the world around them and having failed taken the easy way of numbing their senses.
Dr Zaid, psychiatrist, confirms that around 130 to 150 patients suffering from depression and other psychiatric disorders visit the valley’s lone psychiatric hospital every day. At least 15% of them are addicted to some drug or the other. And almost 90 per cent are from age group of 17 to 35. Dr Zaid points out that during the initial stages of addiction young boys are largely drawn towards medicines with opiates such as Codeine and others which include Sapsmoproxyvon, diazepam, larzepam and the likes which are easily available over the counter. Some graduate to higher drugs like heroin and cocaine. But hashish and ganja remain the most commonly used drugs.
Farooq Ahmad from Shopian in south Kashmir is 34 years old and father of two kids. He is recovering at the de-addiction centre set up by police. He was admitted at the centre a year ago but after having been de-toxed once again fell prey during the Shopian protests triggered by the alleged double rape and murder case in 2009. “The tragedy took place in my neighborhood and I joined the protests. I met my old buddies once again and in the over-riding frenzy I took to charas again,” Farooq recalls.
A survey conducted by the United Nations International Drug Control programme only strengthens the argument that “There are about 70,000 full time drug addicts comprising 26 per cent women while the youth are picking up drugs with each passing day.” The trend is an alarming revelation of the deteriorating socio-political and economic conditions in the intervening years between 1990 and today.
The survey also claims that educational institutions have become the hub of such activity with easy access to drug peddlers. Stating that the trend had reached epidemic levels, renowned sociologist and researcher Dr Bashir A Dabla, senior professor of sociology at Kashmir University, stressed upon the need to devise a social mechanism to check the rising drug addiction among the youth in the valley. “Students from Class IX to college have become victims – of smoking, prescription drugs, liquor and hard drugs,” Dabla said.
Dabla reiterated that drug addiction was rampant among girls too. “It is absurd to see in a largely Muslim society where girls have little role to play outside the home, they too are becoming victims of drug addiction.” Blaming the two-decade long unrest in the valley and its negative impact on society and economy, Dabla believes that the erosion of a sense of security and the absence of societal norms had played a major role in today’s situation.
Another senior professor of sociology at Kashmir University, Aneesa Shafi is of the opinion that drug addiction in the valley could be a result of turmoil weakening the basic fibre of social responsibility and individual attitudes. She believes social insecurity and uncertainty were the basic reason for the increase in drug addiction.
She rejects the possibility of quantifying the number of drug addicts and laments that civil society as well as the government have not been able to set up de-addiction units from where one could easily gather data about the number of drug addicts. “It is difficult to quantify the issue in the absence of any data. Further society continues to consider it a taboo and actual figures would never be revealed,” she added.
Iqbal Ahmad, an independent social worker from Anantnag has been organizing seminars and symposiums in colleges and schools on the problem. He believes that the unrest in the valley and gross human rights violations were the main causes that led to drug addiction. “My sister would have to cross the army bunker every day. And as she passed by, she would be commented upon and even harassed.
The army men would block her path by standing in the middle of the road. She couldn’t say anything and neither could anyone else. This was the cause of her depression. Knowing that her family too was not able to help her she turned to drugs….mild first, hard later,” a visibly upset Iqbal said.
Iqbal believes every Kashmiri at some time or the other would have had to face a similar situation. This caused tremendous depression among men, women and children alike. Iqbal believes that society must get involved and help people overcome depression. “Drug addiction will not go until the cause of depression is addressed.”
Meanwhile data provided by another NGO working for rehabilitating drug addicts, Action Aid international, confirms the alarming rise in drug addiction especially among the youth in Anantnag and Baramulla. The problem has reached almost endemic levels at Bijbehara, Tulkhun, Sangam, Dupathyar, Sampthan and Nanil areas of Anantnag. While Bandipora, Baramulla town, Tangmarg areas remain deeply affected in Baramulla district.
Officials in local NGOs and the police department have confirmed that cases of drug peddling and drug addiction were on the rise particularly in Anantnag (total youth population according to the latest census 34,7420) and Pulwama (22,2803) where, they claimed; more than 45% and 44% of the youth were involved in mild to strong addictions respectively. It is followed by the northern district of Baramullah (total youth population 39,2857) where around 40 per cent of youth were addicted to drugs ranging from prescription drugs, liquor, fukki (poppy dust), charas, brown sugar and other synthetic drugs.
According to official records Kashmir valley is on the verge of becoming a drug capital with cannabis and poppy cultivation a challenge for authorities to handle. While social scientists argue that the increase in drug addiction was a result of the ‘continued suppression’ by the state and the absence of a sense of security, there are others who believe it to be a part of ‘narco-terrorism’.
They point out that poppy cultivation that had spread over 5670 kanals of agricultural land in district Pulwama and cannabis cultivation over 250 kanals was destroyed by the police during 2009 but that it was just the ‘tip of an iceberg.’ Senior superintendent of police, Pulwama, Kifayat Hayder called it ‘narco-terrorism’ and claimed it was a ‘well thought’ conspiracy. “I call it narco-terrorism because drug addicts can be controlled by those who supply them drugs or patronize them to cultivate poppy etc,” Kifayat said.
Kifayat Hayder spearheads the most vigorous campaign against drug addiction within his jurisdiction. Under him the police have initiated a social drive against drug addiction involving respected people of the area to motivate people to shun cultivation of drugs. “It is because of the participation of people including imams (religious clerics) that we have been able to control the situation a lot. The fact that 100 quintals of poppy was destroyed in the previous year after the Awaqaf Committee (a local social organization spearheaded by clerics) supervised the move of the people who voluntarily destroyed the crop and pledged not to cultivate anymore,” Kifayat pointed out.
Giving details on the recovery made during the last three months, Kifayat said the police had seized 1235 kg of fukki, 3 kg of charas and 25 kg of cannabis dust. He however refuted assumptions that 45 per cent of the youth were addicted and claimed it was not more than 10 to 12 per cent.
Administrative officers on condition of anonymity claimed that 12 per cent of total land in the district continues to remain under poppy and cannabis cultivation. Most parts were inaccessible owing to its topography and militant hideouts.
In Anantnag, in the first three months of 2010, the police claimed to have seized 10.5 kg of charas, 704 kilos of poppy straw, 5080 liquor bottles, 764 bottles of Corex. The police also destroyed poppy cultivation over 210 kanals. Senior sduperintendent of police, Anatnag, Showkat said cannabis cultivation over 6373 kanals was destroyed last year. Refusing to commit to a figure, Showkat said drug addiction had reached epidemic levels in almost all parts of the valley. “As of today, I see drug addiction in almost all directions in the valley with the south being the worst hit.”
Sharing his experience of heading the valley’s lone de-addiction centre set up by the state police in 2007, Showkat said an alarming increase in the number of drug addicts was registered during his tenure. He also said that 95 per cent of those at the centre were between ages 14 to 32. “When we began work in 2007, we would receive 30 to 50 patients every day. The number kept growing with each passing month and in the first few months of 2008 the number had grown to at least 100 each day while 50 to 60 would be wait-listed. Almost 95 per cent of them would be between 14 and 32,” Showkat said.
Basharat Ahmad, station head officer (SHO) Batmaloo, has spearheaded a campaign against drugs for some time. He says tourist locations in his districts were highly susceptible to drugs.
The state government has recently confirmed that there has been at least 30 per cent increase in alcohol consumption in the valley during 2009-10. As many as 15,00,000 bottles of liquor were sold in the valley during this period. This information was tabled by minister for finance, Jammu and Kashmir, Abdul Rahim Rather while answering a question in the state Assembly on 24 March, 2010.
Talking to Current, officials of the drug de-addiction centre at the J&K police hospital in Batamaloo, confirmed the team came has across shocking numbers of addicts during drug the de-addiction camps it organized in Baramulla and Anantnag.
Drugs are only one way of coping with the trauma of a world collapsing around you. Others seek medical help. With barely two thousand patients at the state psychiatric hospital at the beginning of the two-decade long unrest, the number has surged to an alarming 100,000 now, officials of the hospital claimed.
Minister for social welfare Sakeena Yatoo while admitting an alarming increase in drug addiction said “the government alone cannot win this war. The participation of the people is necessary to change the situation.” Stating that the two decade long turmoil in the state was the main cause of depression among the people that has led to drug addiction, Yatoo further said the government was keen to crackdown on drug addiction and at the same time set up awareness camps and counseling sessions in the worst hit areas. “There is hardly any family in Kashmir which has remained unaffected by the turmoil. People, young and old, have been killed brutally and those who survived live in acute depression caused by the loss.”
Upholding the decision of the health ministry to introduce a drug policy, Sakeena who hails from a medical background, said over-the-counter drugs were a threat to the young generation and needed to be monitored. Health minister Sham Lal Sharma confirmed that a massive police action has been going on to curb drug addiction in the state. He said the police was carrying out huge campaigns aimed at informing and sensitizing society regarding drug addiction. He also confirmed that the state would soon have a comprehensive drug policy to check the sale and stock of spurious drugs. The Drug Control Organisation has been reactivated by appointing 78 inspectors to be deputed in various health blocks in the state and modernizing methods of drug testing.
Even as the state government readies itself to fight this growing problem, lives such as young Faizan’s are slowly going up in smoke.