Giving Children a Chance - Part 2

EHSAN

He is just six-years-old, and yet smoked biris. He has used inhalants and also country alcohol. One day a tube containing puncture-fixing material fell out of his torn pockets and he was found out. He says he would take a few rupees from his mother on various pretexts without arousing her suspicion, but eventually he got caught and confessed. His mother was alarmed and brought him to the Delhi Gate centre about which she learnt from a child helpline.

Ehsan was caught by police in Mehrauli and spent two days in the lock-up, after which his mother took him away. Poverty and neglect often led him to beg for money and food outside the local dargah.     

Ehsan’s father lost both his arms in an accident and sells candle sticks, joss sticks and puja goods on pavements. With such a background it is not likely that Ehsan will have appropriate aftercare support at home after he is discharged. Like many other children who come from impoverished households, Ehsan remains highly vulnerable to relapse upon discharge following rehabilitation.

Ehsan said he went back to drug-taking as he watched other children in similar circumstances return to a behaviour that they wanted to avoid. Ehsan blames 14-year-old Sonu, who too is undergoing detox at the centre, for his return to drugs,. As we ask him about his addiction Ehsan avoids eye contact, fidgets all the time, and his slight frame gets contorted as he struggles to make his timid incoherent responses.

SONU

 This 14-year-old looks and behaves like a hardened user of drugs. His seven-year dependence on smack and ganja has taken a heavy toll on his physical and mental faculties. There are white patches on his cheeks, his expression is leaden and it is clear that his recovery will take a lot of treatment and aftercare support, in addition to medicines, to improve his health.

Sonu alternately snatched the drugs from his mates, and begged at the PVR cinema at Mehrauli to get his daily fix. He says on an average day he made between two to five hundred rupees, because he mostly targeted foreign tourists.

Sonu’s father does not work and the family (he also has a brother and three sisters) completely depend upon his mother, who does menial jobs in roadside eateries.

Sonu has suffered two relapses since arriving at the centre and due to poor health spent over a fortnight in a hospital. Like several others here he shambles around the site, seeming to be completely detached from his surroundings, looking around vacantly. It seems that he may also have vertigo but fortunately does not fall, avoiding further harm.

Such children, and there are many like him, seldom find friends to interact with and for the most part appear to lead isolated and detached  lives, emotionally burdened with unpleasant memories that cloud their daily lives.  The challenges are many but with appropriate treatment, care, and aftercare support Sonu can return to normal life; however, assistance and reintegration within the family and the wider community will be critically important.  

AYAN AND SAVAN

Like Kaduppa, Ayan is among the counted few who are cheerful and if you didn’t know would never suspect that he had a history of drug use.  

He breaks into smiles every few seconds and shares jokes with the other children who gather around us. The 15-year-old from Chandni Mahal in Old Delhi says his father died three years ago after prolonged alcohol abuse. “My mother will come to meet me on Saturday,” he says brightly, and pointing to another boy, Savan, “his Ma too will.”

This 13-year-old says his father deserted them some nine years ago. “Bhag gaya”, he says plaintively, but then smiles again. Indeed he smiles a lot and is among the handsomest kids here. He has one sister, who is married and works in a hairstyling parlour.

I make them promise that they will not go back to drug-taking. Savan surprises me by suddenly touching my feet and crossing his heart, when I point to the popular belief that people die when such pledges are broken. That makes him look very sombre and thoughtful, and then he again touches my feet and says, “Goddess Laxmi is my witness. I am not letting you die.”

As we said, neither of these two boys appears like those who are dependent on drugs, and are on the road to recovery.  And it is children such as these who stand the best chance of returning to the productive mainstream.

(Keep watching this blog for more stories from SPYM’s centres.)