Faheem ul Islam
The place of tranquility, love and eternal beauty with a composed culture known as Paradise on earth is snowed under the trauma of a blurred future. The place where composed culture was represented the whole Kashmir is shattered now. Kashmir the dream place of many is going under such a social, psychological disorder which creates a headache to all from higher authorities to the ground ones. The long-run armed conflicts and trauma in the valley have its bad consequences always on its residents especially youngsters at large.
Right now the echoed voice from all over the valley is alarming regarding the rise of drug menace culture among youngsters. Substance abuse is also known as drug abuse is a patterned use of a 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 which has a long run bad impact on one’s health. The chaotic situation In Kashmir over the decades drew an impact on the valley’s younger generation in a bad way.
A recent data of the Srinagar Police Control Room’s (PCR) de-addiction center 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 center is alarmingly too.
In the year 2019, 633 were registered at the PCR, which has gone up to 1,978. While 81% were male, there were over 19% females suggesting that the number of female drug abusers is on the rise in the otherwise conservative society. Starting in 2008, the PCR’s de-addiction center has treated 10,000 above abusers to date. The drug that is being consumed is heroin, opium, morphine, brown sugar, marijuana( ganja), etc.
After the arms trade, the drug trade is the third-largest business in the world. So from the above data, we can imagine how the youth are affected by the prolonged socio-political unrest in the valley. Now come to the data provided by the UN office on drugs and crime, around 70 thousand people are drug-addicted alone in the Kashmir division among them 31% are women.
These days the coming cases of drug peddler arrest by police authority are at an apex in Kashmir which is panic in itself. The data above revealing the increasing cases of drug consumers especially youth from 15-25 is a major concern for both authorities as well as guardians. There are various factors leading to the same. The ongoing turmoil is not the only reason but unemployment, peer pressure, and other related issues are also in the line. While in the meantime these things pushed our youth towards an abyss, higher authority researchers have put forth the data of teen girls are also being involved in this heinous deed. Due to chemical dependency in the present era the traditional drugs have been replaced by new more deadly ones which I already mentioned above.
Now 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 government bodies as well as society to overcome this situation. Parental counseling should be more focused on their wards and parents must communicate with their children in same way to look upon their activities, create a friendly environment so that they can share things with you in a flexible way.
Educational institutions should also take their responsibility to aware students of modern trends and organize such programs on personality development and drug de-addiction ones.
The police and other centers should be more vigilant to cope with such situations in valley so that we can save this generation from such a heinous deed and we can prosper towards a bright future.
