S.A Shofiee, Sylhet :
Many of the street children in the Sylhet city are getting addicted to various forms of drugs including adhesive solution, locally known as ‘Dandi’ as it is inexpensive and easy to find.
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.
According to sources, most 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.
Street children at Railway Station, Kodamtoly bus stand, Saheb Bazaar, Surma Point and Sylhet 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.
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 taka 25 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.
Dr Rokib Uddin Chowdhury, Medical Officer (Psychiatry) of Sylhet MAG Osmani Medical College and Hospital, informed, Dandy is made of highly toxic chemical used as adhesive. Sniffing of such adhesive may cause damage to lung, brain, liver and blood.
‘The addicts will develop breathing problems. Besides, the lung and liver will be damaged if anybody takes the drug,’ he added.
