Giving Children a Chance - Part 5
SHAHID
He quickly admits to
having been dependent on drugs, but unlike many others seems positive about the
future. He was dependent on inhalants and ganja, and says he tried smack only
once. We ask him if he is lying, to which he replies, “I am not lying to you,
because I know that if I do I will only be delaying my recovery”.
Then without much
prompting from us he starts talking about his first encounter with inhalants.
He and his friends
would go to a park to do the hits. “They said it was sweet, and so I took it. Actually
it tasted bitter, but gradually I developed a liking for the sensation the
drugs produced. This continued for months when one day my mother got suspicious
upon seeing my bloodshot eyes.”
He says he has been
at the SPYM centre for exactly two months and seven days. When we ask how he is
so sure of it, he says it’s because he has been counting the days ever since he
came here. He is keen to go back home, and if it were possible he would do so
this very day, he says. “Din ginta hoon”
(I count the days).
This, he assures us,
is not because he wants to return to drug-taking but his deep desire to resume
his studies. We ask whether he would consider staying on if he could have his
lessons at the centre. “But I want to learn Urdu. Dua karna seekhna hai. Namaaz farz hota hai,” he says, recalling
his father’s words.
Shahid’s brother also
fell into drug dependency and is in hospital right now.
Shahid says what he
will miss most if he leaves the centre is playing carom which he is very fond
of. “We have a football at home but no carom board.” So if he can also be
taught Urdu here the love of the game would be enough to make him want to stay
on. Won’t he miss his mother, we ask. “She comes every weekend, so that’s not
an issue,” he answers. “I like both my home and this centre.”
RAJU
Raju is just 12 and
has only experimented with ganja. He
says near his home in Badarpur there are several car repair shops. He would
steal discarded car parts and sell them to a scrap dealer to raise money for
his addiction. On any given day he would make up to 500 rupees.
He would also go to a
dargah for free meals. He and his friends used to take a local train to get
there, and for a long time it was their favourite haunt. They would spend hours
roaming around in the open spaces close to the dargah and return home by
evening. “We loved to just wander around the place, it was great fun.”
It was as he was
returning from one of these jaunts that the staff of the childcare NGO
Butterflies stopped him.
Raju’s mother is a
sweeper with the MCD. He has no memory of his father who died when he was just
two years old.
INSAF
As we were preparing
to leave for the day, a woman rushed in holding on to a 16-year-old boy who
looked completely dazed, could barely mumble and almost had to be dragged to
the chair. He has been dependent on inhalants for more than two years.
His mother was in a
terrible state, almost in tears as she narrated her ordeal. Insaf had spent
three months at the centre and had been taken to a hospital for a final
check-up. But within just a couple of days there he, along with two others,
managed to escape from the hospital.
Insaf’s mother said
her son frequently lost sense of his surroundings and would most likely not
have found his way back if his friends had not guided him home.She now wanted
Insaf to be re-admitted to the centre. At this the boy started sobbing, even as
his mother tried to fight back her own tears. He was barely audible, and only
his mother was able to make out what he was mumbling. What he was scared of was
that he might get beaten up at the centre for fleeing the hospital. Whether he
genuinely feared this or was just making it up to escape another spell at the
centre was not clear.
(Keep watching this blog for more stories from SPYM’s centres)
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