Sylhet Correspondent :
Many boys, particularly street children in the Sylhet city are getting addicted to various forms of drugs including adhesive solution, locally known as ‘Dandi’ as it is cheap and easily available.
They are an extremely vulnerable group in all aspects of life, a good number of them victims of reckless drug addiction, but their living on the streets make them more vulnerable to trafficking than other children. Street children at Railway Station, Kodomtoly bus stand, Tuker Bazaar, Surma Point and Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital areas are more prone to glue sniffing, they said.
Living in dense slums, squatter settlements or on the pavement makes these children vulnerable to a dangerous concoction of dilemmas-from malnutrition to sexual abuse, and force them participating in petty thefts and other offences.
Executive Director of MadokAsakta Punarbashan Kendra Sylhet said. There should be adequate preventive measures of protecting the children from being addicted to various forms of drugs in the city,
Most of the street children aged between seven and 16 years are using this cheap product for substance abuse.
To get the money for purchasing the drug, they are getting involved in crimes like mugging, stealing and even begging.
Although there is no exact statistic for these glue sniffers, the addicts themselves informed that several hundred scavengers who collect polythene bags, unused plastic products and other unused materials from the garbage and street, abuse the substance. Describing how the glue is abused, they said they at first collect synthetic rubber adhesive which is used to join wood, rubber, shoes for only Tk25 to 45.
Even if they fail to collect the money for purchasing the adhesive, some smell shoes fixed with the adhesive. Addicted children put the gum into polythene bags and inhale strongly, which gives them a feeling of inebriation, they said.
Rubel, 13, came to the Sylhet metropolis from Mymonsingho district three years ago and used to live as a scavenger at Sylhet railway station. He said a street child first offered him the glue. ‘After sniffing, I became addicted to it as it is a different type of feeling,’ Selim said.
‘When I started to sniff glue regularly, blood used to come out through my nose,’ another addicted child Nazirul said. ‘I understand this is detrimental to health but I cannot avoid it because I am addicted,’ said another 12-year old child.
Many boys, particularly street children in the Sylhet city are getting addicted to various forms of drugs including adhesive solution, locally known as ‘Dandi’ as it is cheap and easily available.
They are an extremely vulnerable group in all aspects of life, a good number of them victims of reckless drug addiction, but their living on the streets make them more vulnerable to trafficking than other children. Street children at Railway Station, Kodomtoly bus stand, Tuker Bazaar, Surma Point and Sylhet Osmani Medical College Hospital areas are more prone to glue sniffing, they said.
Living in dense slums, squatter settlements or on the pavement makes these children vulnerable to a dangerous concoction of dilemmas-from malnutrition to sexual abuse, and force them participating in petty thefts and other offences.
Executive Director of MadokAsakta Punarbashan Kendra Sylhet said. There should be adequate preventive measures of protecting the children from being addicted to various forms of drugs in the city,
Most of the street children aged between seven and 16 years are using this cheap product for substance abuse.
To get the money for purchasing the drug, they are getting involved in crimes like mugging, stealing and even begging.
Although there is no exact statistic for these glue sniffers, the addicts themselves informed that several hundred scavengers who collect polythene bags, unused plastic products and other unused materials from the garbage and street, abuse the substance. Describing how the glue is abused, they said they at first collect synthetic rubber adhesive which is used to join wood, rubber, shoes for only Tk25 to 45.
Even if they fail to collect the money for purchasing the adhesive, some smell shoes fixed with the adhesive. Addicted children put the gum into polythene bags and inhale strongly, which gives them a feeling of inebriation, they said.
Rubel, 13, came to the Sylhet metropolis from Mymonsingho district three years ago and used to live as a scavenger at Sylhet railway station. He said a street child first offered him the glue. ‘After sniffing, I became addicted to it as it is a different type of feeling,’ Selim said.
‘When I started to sniff glue regularly, blood used to come out through my nose,’ another addicted child Nazirul said. ‘I understand this is detrimental to health but I cannot avoid it because I am addicted,’ said another 12-year old child.
