Javeed Beigh
“When our neighbour could not succeed in its nefarious designs by sending terrorists and weapons, it hatched a conspiracy to smuggle drugs into our country to destroy our youth”
- PM Narender Modi, Oct 2019
As per assessment of UN office on drug & crime, J&K has over six lakhs drug addicts (4.6% of population of J& K). During the period 2018-21, there has been an increase of 1500% in drug abuse. Over 90% of these individuals belong to the age group of 17-23 years and 31% of them are female. Narco smuggling has far too many adverse impacts on the individuals and the society as a whole. If we look at short term impacts, these may include increase in terrorist activities being a ‘High Impact and Low-Cost Option’ vis-a-vis religious/ ideological radicalisation. Drug menace would provide a conducive eco system to facilitate perpetration of crime like domestic violence, assault, burglary, identity theft etc. Not only this, it will also have varied & serious physical & psychological health issues to include emotional burden & challenges for future generation especially in case of women.
Foreseeing the long-term impact on the society it is likely to damage existing social fabric by causing irreparable damage to the family structure resulting, rise in divorce cases & issues such as neglect of children, social evils like prostitution, child abuse and cause permanent physical and emotional damage to an individual, families and society as a whole.
Some of the main causes of increase in narco-smuggling as identified include Terror Nexus, support of Pak, a low-cost option and loss of parental control. psychological disorientation of youth due to prevalent security situation in last three decade coupled with peer pressure, socio-economic challenges, easy availability of drugs has turned this into a lucrative option as the investments made in drugs can be easily recovered through hawala transfers routed through other countries. This is a preferred option for the inimical elements much better than radicalisation that involves huge investment of time and effort and also doesn’t yield any financial benefits.
Considering the fragile security situation in the Valley, it will also lead to considerable increase in terrorist activities, facilitate recruitment of gullible youth into terrorist tanzeems. Owing to youth becoming addicted to drugs, there is high possibility of them being exploited by manipulation and being misled onto wrong path. It will lead to rise in law & order situation with increase in illegal use of weapons/ violence, Number of unemployed gullible youth may be exploited by Anti-National Elelments, road accidents & suicide attempts. Further, it is envisaged to have long term impact on both physiological & psychological health of the society especially, the future generation including adverse impact of HIV & parents health on child birth.
To counter these, there is a requirement of a multi-dimensional whole of the government and civil society approach including society elders & religious teachers. It should focus on prevention and control as well as treatment and rehabilitation. Hesitation in the part of parents of drug addicts especially, girls for rehab due to the societal taboo which is very high in muslim society of Kashmir needs to be addressed.
Our national focus need to be devised to simultaneously address supply, demand and reduction of adverse impact of drug on physiological & psychological health. There is a need to address this issue with multi-pronged strategy like social awareness campaign involving elders & religious teachers to deal with social stigma, breaking the supply chain through stringent laws and ground checks, Proactive rehab, encouraging government initiatives like Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan, Long term residential programmes including multi – disciplinary team of Psychologist, Nurses, Psychiatrist, Physicians.
