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| Drug addicts sell kidneys in Assam |
| No more the preserve of the rich in metros, drugs have proliferated even small towns in India.
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| INDIA
, 21-April-2007
1:32:45 AM |
| An NDTV investigation finds that druglords operate openly in Upper Assam's Dibrugarh town, while addicts are selling kidneys to buy the next fix.
Amrita is one of many in Dibrugarh caught in a web that she's not strong enough to break out of.
''I don't know the supplier's name but I have been doing this for ten years. I can't leave, I manage the money somehow. I take powder, buy for Rs 70 in a day, twice or thrice. I do wrong things to make money. There are 10-15 girls with me mostly from well-to-do families. I can't kick the habit,'' said Amrita, an addict.
Her desperation has led her into prostitution. Others have also sold their kidneys. And yet others sell blood to feed their addiction.
''We can't live without drugs. I don't have any money so I sold my kidneys to a man in Sibsagar. I sold it for Rs 40,000 and I got Rs 55,000. What do we do, we have become dependent,'' said Manish and Utpal, drug addicts.
The trade is run by people who know just what lengths their customers will go to. Panchali, a slum in Dibrugarh is full of such peddlers.
Yet another addict is a 12-year-old boy, who is almost defiant as most of his friends. He openly snorts dendrite, a deadly drug popular with almost 300 children.
''We get a high. We saw others taking it so we learnt the habit. We are 30-35 children. We were taught. Now we can't leave. We need Rs 25-30 a day to support the habit. I earn Rs 50 a day,'' said child drug addict.
But actually, the boy is a petty thief released from a police lock-up the day before. Rajubhai is one of the rare ones who have managed to kick the habit. He's now trying to convince the others.
He took the NDTV team on a tour of Dibrugarh's underbelly - the Kalibari Path, a road that leads to a neighbourhood of petty traders in shanties. It's from this shanty that peddler Ilahi Sheikh runs his ever-widening empire of brown sugar.
Dibrugarh is one of the oldest hub of drugs of all kinds.
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