Sometime in 1960s, Manipur and Punjab met each other for the first time in the finals of a football tournament in Delhi. As the players’ names were being announced, Punjab team being the first there arose confusion when names of Manipuri players were called out; both teams had ‘Singh’ as their surnames. I was reminded of this delightful anecdote as both these states are now voting to elect a new government.
Manipur and Punjab have more than just surnames to compare; both have gone through intense phases of militancy, share international borders, have been battling war with drugs, reported the worst encounter killings, and are sports powerhouses. What sets them apart is, while one continues to be in the geographical and collective periphery, the other claims dominant mainstream status.
Though the Punjab government has tried to counter its drugged image with advertising campaigns, calling it a bluff, data and studies indicate otherwise. In 2009, the state government in an affidavit said, “Over 16 per cent of (Punjab’s) population is addicted to drugs”. The same affidavit cited, “Opiates, their derivatives, and synthetic opiate drugs are used by 70 per cent of the addicts, followed by a combination of opiate and other sedatives, including morphine.” In 2004, the state was home to 56 per cent of the country’s opium users and was one of the three states reporting the use of propoxyphene.
With drugs as the potent talking point in 2017 election in Punjab, voters across Doaba, Malwa and Majha are upset with the government’s inability to fight the nasha. Supply of heroin from Afghanistan, smuggled across the border into Punjab for onward transit to the West, generates the supply chain. While opium, poppy, charas and ganja among other drugs come from Himachal Pradesh and Rajasthan, prescription drugs are locally available.
Given the lucre of drug money, it is unlikely that any political dispensation will be able to fight the high volume illicit trade. But the fact that an election is being fought on this issue is significant. In sharp contrast, Manipur that has an estimated 50,000 drug addicts, barely considers it an issue. Manipur makes up .24 per cent of India’s population, but even decades ago the state’s intravenous drug users accounted a quarter of India’s HIV cases because addicts share needles and syringes. With protracted conflict, absence of governance and shocking unemployment rate, Manipur’s drug abuse has been amongst the worst.
In 2007, I met Shanti in Chandel, Manipur. She was doing drugs for a very long time, passing on syringes till she tested positive. That’s when she wanted to kill herself. When we met her, we found that Shanti was not only HIV-positive, but Hepatitis C-positive as well.
A new health epidemic was unleashed on this border state. Gender discrimination denied women and children from availing the free-of-cost state government care. It is never easy for a woman to walk up to a drop-in centre (where drug addicts can exchange their used needles for new ones to avoid infection) or receive treatment in government hospitals. I recall Shanti saying, “I keep praying to my god to make me live one more day.”
At another drop-in centre, Luciene wore a wry smile as she climbed up the wooden staircase. Her husband was an injecting drug user and infected her with HIV. And now, she was tested for Hep C. With a salary of `4,000 per month and three children, her medical expenses ran to about `5,000 every month. Not surprisingly, she was always in debt. And she was not the only one.
Easy and reasonably affordable drugs come to Manipur due to its proximity to the Golden Triangle that has the world’s biggest drug-runners. According to a 2015 UNODC report, more than half of Manipur’s women addicts, drug peddling and sex work are the primary sources of income.
The BJP, hoping to make gains in Manipur this year, has made some noise around drug abuse. But this epidemic has neither provoked mass protests (like they have on multiple ethnic fault lines) or generated any political heat. Meanwhile, more and more people are affected by it.
kishalayb@gmail.com