Public Eye: Children take to drug in increasing number

Aslam alias Hero, a 14-year-old Pakistani boy, has few ambitions in life. He has already chosen his journey, oblivious to the fact that it could kill him in just a few years.

"I am a hero chasing heroin for death," said Aslam as he inhaled powdered heroin from a burnt cigarette foil with a group of friends in a bustling part of Rawalpindi city.

Children like Aslam have become a major concern for social workers here, where they are known as the 'little angels of death.'

Pakistan has some four million drug addicts, half of who are hooked to heroin. Some 72 per cent of addicts are younger than 35, according to official sources.

"It is dangerously alarming as the trend is increasing among children," said social worker Khalida Saleemi, who heads an organisation working with street children in Rawalpindi.

Most of the drugs come from neighbouring Afghanistan.

"There are thousands and thousands of heroin addicts among children in the country. The reasons for turning to addiction vary from being in broken families and escaping from home, to use in family and among peers and easy availability " she said.

Aslam alias Hero was admitted to the treatment centre five times during the past two-and-a-half years. But rehabilitation seems far from the mind of the frail youngster, covered in dirt.

"I will get rid of this only when I am in the grave," he said.

During the day he roams the city begging, or cleaning cars on the roads. The money goes into buying heroin.

"I earn Rs 150 to Rs 200 ($3 to $4) a day, then take the medicine (heroin)," he said. "If I do not take it, then I sweat badly and my body aches. For the last three years, I have been living for this heroin."

Aslam's two young brothers are also addicts and live on the city's pavements. They learnt about the drug through their father, Babu Mechanic, a former taxi driver and long time addict.

Despite his young age, Aslam has seen a lot in life. He has lost his mother. His friends have died, his family has been reduced to begging and visits to police stations and hospitals are regular.

"Not only could I not fulfil a promise to my dying mother, but I could not protect my own brothers from addiction," he said. "Obviously I do not like it when people call me "powdry" (the user of heroin), but I cannot help it."

Like Aslam, there are thousands of boys living on pavements or in graveyards in big cities like Rawalpindi, Lahore and Karachi, who crowd around restaurants for leftovers.

"The story starts mostly with charas (hashish) then sniffing glue and ends at heroin with death," said the social worker Khalida Saleemi. "The boys beg, steal or get forced into child prostitution or become drug peddlers themselves, for a cut."

Social workers trace the history of heroin to the Afghan war which broke out in 1979. At that time, there were few drug addicts in the country. The Soviet invasion and years of fighting brought the Kalashnikov culture and heroin.

Officials say addicts in Pakistan spend around $40 million a year and consume 130 tonnes of drugs.

"We are no longer a producing country but a target country," said one official. "We are trying to combat this menace with the help of the Western countries. But we know we have to do a lot."

Thousands of children are heroin addicts who often live in groups around a leader.

"I take shares from everybody because I save them from all difficulties. I myself was brought here by my friends," said 15-year-old Mohammed Bashir. "The cruel world teaches us everything."

Every child has a harrowing story to tell.

"My friend, who introduced me to heroin, has just died," said 16-year-old Mohammed Arif. "I sold my brother's camera, the kitchen utensils, and even the jewellery from my sister's dowry…I have done everything for it. I cannot leave this and this does not leave my either."

Social workers say the children easily fall prey to the drug mafia or militant groups.

"The government has no system to protect these drug-addicted children. There is hardly any counselling centre for those who have become social outcasts for no crime of their own," said social worker, Faisal Edhi. "Children are our future and we have to save them from going into the valley of death."