Lost one generation to war, losing another to drugs.
The place of tranquil, love and eternal beauty with composed culture of shrines and other religious places of harmony known as Paradise on Earth is snowed under the trauma of blurred future. The place where composed culture was representing the whole Kashmir is shattered now. Kashmir, the dream place of many, is going under a social, psychological disorder that is creating a headache to all from higher authorities to the ground ones.
The long-run armed conflicts and trauma in the Valley has its bad consequences on its residents, especially youngsters at large. Right now, echoed voices from all over the Valley are alarming regarding the rise of drug menace among youngsters. Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, is a patterned use of substance by any method in which the consumer uses the substance in such an amount that is neither approved nor prescribed by any medical professionals and has a long-run bad impact on one’s health.
For decades, the chaotic situation in Kashmir and the ongoing unrest in the past couple of years has resulted in the unwanted retardation in the Valley. This has impacted the Valley’s younger generation in a bad way. A recent data of the Srinagar Police Control Room’s (PCR) de-addiction centre reveals that of the entire lot, most drug abusers fall in the age group of 18-35 years. While the numbers affected is very high, the patient flow at the de-addiction centre is alarmingly too.
In the year 2019, 633 were registered at the PCR, which has gone up to 1,978. While 81% were males, there were over 19% females, suggesting that the number of female drug abusers, too, is on the rise in the otherwise conservative society. The PCR’s de-addiction centre started in 2008 and has treated 10,000 above abusers till date. Drugs that are being consumed are heroin, opium, morphine, brown sugar, marijuana (ganja) etc.
After arms trade, the drug trade is the second largest business in the world. So from above data, we can imagine how the youth are affected from the prolonged socio-political unrest in the Valley. Now come to the data provided by UN office on drug and crime: around 70,000 people are drug addicts alone in the Kashmir division, among whom 31% are women.
Nowadays, the coming cases of drug peddler arrest by the police authority is at apex in Kashmir; this is a panic situation in itself. The data reveals the increasing cases of drug consumers, especially among the youth from 15-25 years and is a major concern for both the authorities as well as the guardians.
There are various factors leading to this increase.
The ongoing turmoil is not the only reason; unemployment, peer pressure and personal relationship issues are also in line. In the meantime, these things have pushed our youths towards an abyss. Higher authority researchers have put forth the data of teen girls also being involved in this heinous deed. Due to chemical dependency in the present era, traditional drugs have been replaced by new more deadly ones that I have already mentioned above.
Unemployment in Kashmir can also be taken as a major contributing factor towards pushing our well-educated youths in the world of drugs. I don’t want to comment much on that as it is new chapter but mentioning here is important as one feels hopelessness and helplessness, and tries to consume a small amount to get rid of stress.
But in long run, the same habit makes them prey to addiction. The new trend of taking unhealthy steps by school-going students in matters of relationships is another reason why youngsters are falling prey to such menace. Peer pressure is also the main contributing factor towards your personality development. Studies reveal that peers directly impact how an individual turns out or behaves.
It has always been said that prevention is better than cure. And to follow the same norm, I can say that it is the collective duty and responsibility of both the government bodies as well as society to overcome with this situation. Parental counselling should be more focused towards their wards and parents must communicate with their children in the same way to look upon their activities and create a friendly environment so that they can share things with you in a flexible way.
Educational institutions should also take the responsibility to make students aware with modern trends and organise programmes on personality development and drug de-addiction.
Being a Muslim majority, our Valley has been blessed in many ways; one of them is our religious preachers. They can spread awareness in the public about its consequences and the religious perspective as well. And finally, governments should seriously look into the matter and stop the trafficking of such drugs in the Valley.
The police and other centres should be more vigilant in coping up with such a situation in the Valley so that we can save this generation from a heinous deed and prosper towards a bright future.
Note: The article has also been published here.
About the author: Faheem ul islam is the author of two books and is currently pursuing BA (Hons) in political science at Aligarh Muslim University.