‘Average age of drug addicts is decreasing and it’s alarming’: Mukta Puntambekar, project director of Muktangan De-addiction Centre

This place can only close down if there are no addicts and hence this is my unusual wish,” said Puntambekar. Stressing on various patterns in drug and substance abuse, she said, “Over the years since I joined the institution in 1993, I have seen various changing patterns. But what I see now is alarming. The average age of drug abusers is decreasing and even school students are getting addicted to one thing or the other,” said Puntambekar.

Datta Shrikhande, a coordinator at Muktangan Rehabilitation Centre, said the biggest addiction among students is whitener sniffing and its use among kids belonging to affluent families is increasing. Shrikhande became a name known to radio listeners nationwide after Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned his story of winning his battle with drug addiction and his achievements on Mann Ki Baat, the PM’s monthly address to the nation on All India Radio (AIR). Shrikhande said another problem that we have come across is behavioral addiction or in other terms internet addiction. “While young men are addicted to porn, kids are in a big way hooked to social networking sites. This is dangerous. We try to treat them in the OPD but if cases are severe, we admit them,” he said He said increasing usage of Crystal Meth is another trend among youngsters. Many of them try it for fun at first but end up becoming addicts. “One in 10 women who visits our centre is treated for it and it is a big number,” added Shrikhande.

Puntambekar said communication gap between parents and children is also a cause for concern. “Due to the lack of open spaces, kids hardly go out to play. They devote all their time to internet, which not only makes them an addict but also give them physical problems like bad posture, eye sight etc. It is very important that parents control this high internet addiction from the beginning,” said Puntambekar. Talking about Nishigandh, the women’s ward at Muktangan, Puntambekar said with drinking and smoking getting social acceptance, there has been an increase in women addicts.

“Nowadays, smoking and drinking is glamourised and socially accepted, which has led to a lot of women visiting our centre for de-addiction,” said Puntambekar. While the success rate in de-addiction and rehabilitation depends on a lot of factors, the most important is the socio-economic condition of a patient.

“The rate of relapse in sex workers is huge because even if they are cured, they are going back to the same life which led them to start drugs in the first place. The same is the case with slum dwellers. Hence, we try to give them vocational training and even recommend them for jobs so that they can live a better life. We keep following up these cases and ensure their families too are counseled properly so that they do not relapse,” she added.