INDIA: Rahul Bedi visits an unusual detoxification centre in Chura Chandpur, where heroin addicts are shackled on the insistence of parents
With ankles shackled, scores of heroin addicts hobble around the crowded yard of their rehabilitation centre in a remote narcotics-ridden region of India, in a unique de-addiction programme.
Two heavy China-made padlocks, that are difficult to pick, secure the thick manacles around the ankles of 74 addicts as they shamble across the Gamnuam Christian Home in Chura Chandpur, in Manipur state bordering Burma, participating in "vocational activities" like noodle-making, tailoring, carpentry and choir practice.
"Their desperation makes them crafty and they can open ordinary padlocks in order to run away and to begin taking drugs again," said Pavkholian Dousel, a church elder and founding head of the unusual detoxification centre that has been running for 17 years.
"If they escape, I become answerable to their parents who insist I keep their sons chained and captive till they kick their drug-taking habit and become clean once again," the 64-year old preacher added.
With a population of about 150,000 Chura Chandpur, 65 km south of the state capital Imphal, has the highest heroin addiction rate in India.
The cheaply-available drug - Rs 100 ($2.2) for a single shot - is smuggled in from the porous Burma frontier 40 km away.
A recent survey revealed that 67 per cent of regular heroin users were school children aged 11, who, in many cases, also doubled as couriers and often resorted to petty crime to sustain their addiction.
"Every house has a user," said Joy Ganguly of Sahara, the Delhi-based non-governmental organisation involved with more traditional methods of rehabilitating drug addicts. The region is fighting a losing battle against heroin addition, activist Irene Singh declared.
Meanwhile, the ostensibly barbaric shackling of the young men admitted to Dousel's Home by desperate parents is discounted smilingly by the inmates aged between 11 and 40.
For them "Changed when chained" is the guiding principle. They have even written a song around this theme which they sing frequently, rhythmically rattling their shackles as they do so.
"It was painful and humiliating when I was first manacled and all I wanted to do was escape," said Pau Siamal (30), an inmate for over three years .
"But after six months, as I stayed off drugs and began feeling better, things changed emotionally, spiritually and physically. Now I feel complete without them," he added.
"Being chained has helped me break the debilitating drug habit," said Mangboi, a long-time heroin addict and home resident for 18 months; the first few weeks were a "nightmare" as his emaciated body, sustained on a daily diet of heroin, screamed for sustenance.
"The shackles and God completely altered my life. I don't even notice them now," the 28-year-old admitted.
"We teach the addicts the ugliness of sin and the beauty of holiness in accordance with the Bible," Dousel said. "That faith ultimately gives them the will to prevail over the addiction."
All home residents are tribals, originally from the surrounding hill regions converted to Christianity by missionaries 140 years ago.
"There is no coercion involved and all are free to leave provided their parents withdraw them," Dousel said. He also makes it mandatory for the parents of inmates to be present at the frequent therapy "fellowship" sessions to demonstrate their involvement. The parents wishes are unconditionally obeyed by all, added Dousel, who had "treated" more than 1,500 addicts since 1987.
Their day begins at 5.30 a.m. with church service, gospel classes and choir practice. Noodle-making, sewing and work on building a new wooden chapel and a massive underground water storage facility follow.
Football, the most favoured activity and the only one - besides bathing - for which the chains are removed, takes care of the afternoon. Daily practice sessions have led to the home's team winning the district's senior division football league last year.
Monthly charges for each inmate are Rs2,000 ($42). About a third, too destitute but horribly addicted, are admitted for free. Some are even permitted to keep their wives and children with them, but the women live separately with the Dousel family. Human rights organisations filed cases against Dousel soon after he launched his distinctive programme, but the inmates' parents rose collectively to his defence, neutralising criticism and paying lawyers to defend him. The cases are pending.
But the home's popularity has grown with Dousel having to turn away addicts. Consequently, three similar detoxification centres, where all inmates were chained, have sprung up in the town with around 150 addicts. "It works even though it appears inhuman at first," college lecturer Tonsing Vunglallian said.