For Jeetu, most days play out exactly the same. He wakes up under the Sarai Kale Khan flyover in Delhi and then spends the most of his day roaming about the Nizamuddin railway station, picking up litter and fights. He sleeps on a mat under the flyover, where different sections are hoarded by the homeless. His goal is to earn at least 70 rupees so that he can head over to the nearby hardware store and buy a tube of Flute of Omni. He uses these tyre-vulcanising adhesive to get high.
There are so many stories under one sub-section of the Sarai Kale Khanflyover in Delhi, waiting to be found, with its protagonists waiting to beheard. Daily wage labourers who have been fleeced by contractors, familieswithout any government identities to prove their existence, violence, deathsand of course, drugs.
Jeetu agreed to take us into his world.
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The statistics are revealing.
The average age of children indulging in substance abuse inthe capital is 13.7 years, according to a study by the Delhi Commission forProtection of Child Rights (DCPCR) on Substance Abuse by Children.
The same study concludes that 100 percent of the children inconflict with the law were drug abusers, while 95.5 percent of them staying inchild care institutions were on drugs and 93 percent of street childrenconsumed narcotics.
The drugs they consume are often not illegal. But the abuse of adhesives (as in the case of Jeetu), over-the-counter medicines and other inhalants are much too common to ignore.
Has Jeetu tried to quit? Yes, many times. But as he says in the video, the moment he sees another, he wants to do it too. It’s this addictive nature of the glue, that many a times fights have broken out under the flyover between the kids. And it’s not uncommon for blades and knives to come out, Jeetu told us, just like that.
It’s a hidden epidemic that needs our attention, as much as Udta Punjab did.
Read this indepth article about street kids who have fought and beaten their addiction: Delhi’s Dark Secret: Rampant Drug Abuse by Street Children
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