Syed Shemul Parvez :
A huge number of street children in the capital are terribly getting addicted to glue-sniffing generally known as ‘Dandy’ which vanishes the shroud of brain cells and causes hallucinations gradually.
“Dandy makes me sleep easier and to forget the harshness of my life,” said Rubina, a 15-year old teenager with a blank face who sells flowers and collects garbage for her survival. She is an orphan who sleeps on the footpath of city’s Palasey area since her birth.
When asked, why does she take Dandy?, Rubina told the New Nation that actually she don’t have parents in this world. As a result, she used to spend time with others street children since her childhood. But she dint get the good company. Almost all of her friends were drug addicted. Consequently she had involved herself with dandy, said Rubina.
Why do you choose dandy as drug, she said, actually it is not expensive and it is available in the local area.
Do you take dandy regularly, she said, actually when I feel loneliness and face critical situation like appetite, I take dandy to alleviate my pain instantly.
How do you collect the material of Dandy? Actually I generally take the materials from the shop of shoe of the capital. At present we cannot buy the materials of dandy as local administration has been alert on the issue, Rubina further added.
Another street children name Sawon, 12, who lives in the Sahid Minar area of the capital, told the New Nation, my
parents are not alive. I some time collect plastic bottle from the DU and BUET campus to earn my livelihood.
“What I earn by collecting bottle, I spend some for my food and with the rest I buy Dandy … I do love to sleep all day,” he said in a taunting smile on his face.
When you cannot earn money, how do you manage your food ? Sawon said , I approach for food at some local hotels and restaurants. Some time they give food, some time refused and rebuke me with bad language.
Did you get any government support to live on? Sorry I haven’t got any cooperation of government. But some humanitarian organization generally gives us food and blanket now and then, Sawon added.
Dandy, used by shoe repairers, is adhesive glue which contains toluene, a sweet smelling and intoxicating hydrocarbon.
Currently, breathing in fumes from glue-soaked rags and glue-filled plastic bags is a normal activity for a large number of city’s street children like Sawon and Rubina.
It is to be mentioned that the difference between Dandy and other drugs is that Dandy is not expensive and is not subject to fluctuations in supply in the same way as other drugs. It is both legal and cheap – making it a very convenient substance to abuse.
It is learned that the street children carry dendrites in a plastic bag and put their mouths in the plastic bag to inhale. Sometimes they gather in groups to take turns to inhale in public places especially at the bus stations, train stations, launch terminals, footpaths, and footbridges.
In this issue, when asked regarding the addicted street children of the capital, Dr. Hafiz Uddin Buiyan, Professor, Institute of Social Welfare and Research (ISWR) of University of Dhaka, told the New Nation that all classes of vulnerable people including the street children are the part of our nation as well as country. So they have valid rights to survive with all types of facilities. But they are not getting their proper rights from the government. Though there are two ministries like Ministry of Social Welfare and Ministry of Women and Children affairs to work with the vulnerable people. But their initiatives are not sufficient to meet the challenge of total vulnerable people. Even there is no stern monitoring cell to look after the activities of particular ministry.
As a result, vulnerable people including the street children are not getting proper facilities to live on. As no one cares them, they are compelled to be involved with various crimes and addiction, Dr Hafiz added.
MM Morshed, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Lalbagh Police Station, told the New Nation that already we have taken initiatives to stop the materials of Dandy in the Lalbagh area. We have even filed some cases against the shoe shops those provide dandy materials to the street children, OC added.
Syeda Ananya Rahman, program manager of the anti-drug organization Work for Better Bangladesh, said there is no-one looking after the street children and taking care of them, so it is easy for them to become addicted to drugs.
Drug abuse creates physical and socio-behavioral problem of children and affects the economic and social aspects of society in the country as a whole, she said.
Earlier, a World Bank study indicated that a stunning number of 2,50,000 street children are addicted to drugs, most too glue-sniffing.
According to the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) projects, the number of street children stood at 1.5 million in 2015 and it will reach 1.56 million in 2024.
