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Kathmandu Friday December 28, 2001 Paush 13, 2058.
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Doing drugs is no more an
all-male thing
By Shikha Manandhar
KATHMANDU, Doing drugs is now no more an
exclusively male activity in Nepal’s cities. From teenagers to divorcees in their
thirties, females are increasingly abusing substance, says a study by a research group,
Richmond Fellowship Nepal.
The research group now in its second year of
gathering and sifting through information on women drug users in the cities of Kathmandu
and Pokhara reports that around 1500 women have been found to be hooked. These women
belong to various strata of society—street women, rich divorcees, wives of drug
addicts themselves and students.
"There has been an immense growth in
substance use by city women," says Sunita Singh Malla who is coordinating the
research. The study says both hard and soft drugs—like marijuana, hashish, brown
sugar, heroin, dendrite and tdjesic—are in circulation among the women addicts.
These addicts could have been driven by any
number of reasons—such as family discord, lack of shelter, migration from the
villages to the cities, poverty, sheer curiosity and indulgence.
Sangita Shakya (not real name) is a married
woman with a daughter. For five years now she has been on some substance or the other. She
says it was her family situation that made her take to drugs. "I began taking drugs
to get relief from the situation I was going through. There was always trouble in the
family. My husband was taking it, so I followed," she says.
A large number of school girls are also among
the addicted. The research study says it’s peer pressure that’s making them do
it. "It’s the identity cult that’s making these students join in the drug
experience. In the process of searching for an identity, they tend to form groups and go
to discotheques and other places of entertainment, high on drugs," says Ivana Lohar,
a sociologist with the Richmond Fellowship Nepal.
The alleys of Teku, Thamel and Mahankal are a
favourite haunt of these teenage girls desperate for a high, says the study.
Drug abuse has also thrown some of the women
into prostitution. The study says pimps have been known to keep track of women indulging
in drugs, and then lure them into sex work.
And as in the case of drug addiction among men,
there are no foolproof ways in which the women can be stopped from seeking a
‘high’. "The problem of the victim who is into drugs is not just her own
problem or her family’s, the whole society should work towards helping her out.
Proper parenting, love and good care are some of the ways in which this can be done. Then
there is the need for more counselling and rehabilitation centres," says Dr. Kedar
Rayamajhi, a clinical psychologist in the capital.
Then there is of course the need to bust the
drug peddling network. But that’s easier said than done. Finally, it is up to the
addict herself to kick the habit.
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