Dhaka: drug addiction among young women on the rise

Stress and loneliness are the main causes of the increase in cases of young and frail women abusing drugs. The phenomenon has worsened with the pandemic, in a country where social stigma towards those with addiction problems is still very strong. Yaba is the most commonly consumed substance.

Dhaka (AsiaNews) - The mother of Anita Gomes (not her real name) is very worried. Her only 21-year-old daughter has become like an outsider since she is addicted to yaba. Yaba is a combination of concentrated caffeine and methamphetamine, a highly addictive stimulant drug that can cause mental and physical disorders, especially if used over a prolonged period of time.

"She got treatment twice in a rehabilitation centre, but then she became addicted again," her mother tells AsiaNews in a hushed voice and guarding a secret, which for fear of the social stigma attached to drugs, she has not revealed to anyone.

Before she started abusing yaba, in fact, the young woman attended university with excellent results. Anita's story is less and less an isolated case in Bangladesh.

Dr Aruparatan Chowdhury, a member of the National Narcotics Control Board, draws on aproximate figures to describe the dimensions of the problem: "Although there are no official statistics on drug addicts in the country, we estimate there are more than 10 million and 80% of them are young people, while 43% are unemployed and 60% commit offences of dealing or buying the dose. The most significant figure for the speed of increase is that 5% of drug addicts are women and 90% are between 15 and 35 years old."

Hard data on the phenomenon comes from the director of the Dhaka Ahsania Mission Women's Drug Addiction Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre, Iqbal Masud, who explains: "As of 2014, 647 women with multiple addictions, substance addiction as well as mental disorders, have been treated and 129 have relapsed."

Among the most commonly consumed substances among the women in treatment were yaba (33%), marijuana (28%), sleeping pills (16%), various drugs (15%) and alcohol (2%). Patients with addiction problems also suffered from mental health problems: 34% of female in-patients suffered from schizophrenia, 30% from mood disorders, 12% were found to be bipolar and 10% were living with depression.

Dr. Pallab Rozario, head of the health area of Caritas Bangladesh, explains to AsiaNews that after the Covid-19 pandemic, the rate among female drug addicts has increased alarmingly: 'Stress and loneliness are the main causes that particularly affect young female university students. In fact, we have observed that several members of a study group often become addicted to substances at the same time'.

In addition to pathology, there is also another issue, for which Anna Gomes' story is emblematic: the mother did not tell any other family member about her daughter's addiction and hospitalisation: "The issue of women drug addicts does not come to light in the country because of the still strong social stigma in Bangladesh against substance abusers and their families," explains Rozario, who with the support of Caritas Germany and Bangladesh ran a project to treat women drug addicts for many years, but due to a lack of funds in the last two years, it was closed down. "With another health programme, we continue to do training and prevention in schools so that women stay away from drugs," Rozario concludes.