Drug menace grips Patna streetkids

Patna: In the heart of Patna city, a nine-year-old boy has been in chains for the past one month right outside the railway station. He has been chained by his own father.

Om Prakash's father has his reasons. He wants to keep his son away from drugs.

"Ek mahina se hathkari lagaye hue hai. Khilata hu, pilata hu, par apne ankho se bahar nahi jane deta, (He has been in chains for the past one month. I give him food and water, but don't let him go out of my sight,)" says Vijay Mahato, Om Prakash's father.

Om Prakash, a drug addict child, doesn't hestitate to admit his obsession.

"Solution pite the, baap mana kaar raha tha. Ish ilye. (I used to take Solutions. Father used to warn me. That's why I'm being kept like this)," he says.

Om Prakash's father keeps a close watch on his son. But there are some 500 other children in and around the Patna railway station who are drug addicts. Some of who have nobody to take care of them.

Seven-year-old Madhu is on his way to buy his daily quota of what he calls the solution. It's readily available at general stores. He shells out Rs 12 and the shopkeeper coolly slips in a bottle of whitener.

What is white ink to us is solution to these boys. The whitener is poured on a piece of cloth and inhaled. They say this gives them a kick.

"Yaha atte hai, gadi check karate hai, phir bottle bech kaar 20 rupaye wala maal kharid kaar pite hai, (I come here, wait for trains, sell water bottles and then take the 20-rupee stuff," admits Madhu, a drug addict child.

The trains earn them their bread. The children pick up used mineral water bottles and refill them with tap water. Some survive by collecting garbage or selling magazines. But they all use drugs.

At a tender age, these kids are not only hardcore drug addicts, but also criminals in police records. Their day begins at these platforms, filled with abuse and hunger, and whatever they earn throughout the day goes into buying drugs.

"Bemari hota hai. Paanch wala pine se haddi gala dega. Par humse chutbe nahi karta hai, kya kare," (It does give us diseases. The five-rupee stuff stiffens the neck. Yet, I can't get rid of this. What to do?" says Mani, another drug addict child.

The disease is surely widespread. And as Mani says there has to be a solution to this addiction to drugs.