Laudable move against drug abuse

Gender dialogue by Nadira Gunatilleke 

Women all over the country expressed their gratitude to President Mahinda Rajapakse for his efforts to curb the drug and alcohol mania in the country under `Mahinda Chinthanaya'. It is women and children who benefit most from this special program, they said.

Seelawathi, a 33-year-old housemaid with five children said that curbing drugs and alcohol is the only blessing she received since she got married. "My husband is a drug addict and he wastes all my money over drugs. I feed the family amid numerous difficulties.

I do all types of odd jobs to earn a living. My husband was rehabilitated on few occasions but it was no use. He comes back from the rehabilitation centre and starts the old habit with his friends. Sometimes he ends up in jail for stealing. Eradicating drugs is the only option left to save my family. We voted for politicians to eradicate this mania but what some of them did was promoting drug `Mudalalis'. But this time our dreams became true."

Prema, a 59 year old mother of three young sons said that she has no words to describe how important and what a big relief it was when she heard the President's new vision and programme to curb drugs and alcohol mania. "My youngest son is a drug addict and he tries to kill me often demanding money to buy drugs.

He was rehabilitated once but after he returned from the rehabilitation centre he started this bad habit once again. It was his friends who dragged him into this deadly situation. He cuts himself and harms himself often. Since my eldest son is an alcoholic I have no one to turn to for help.

My husband died few years back. He had a heart attack after quarrelling with my drug addict son. "I live with my younger brother. We lost our mother to the Tsunami and our father left our family when we were kids. I was in grave danger and I left my home to live with my aunt said Chamila, a 29 year old girl from Panadura.

"My younger brother who is just 25 is an alcoholic and he brings his friends into our home every night. They get drunk and his friends tried to rape me twice. After that I left my home and live with my aunt. But I can't live with her for a long time because she is going abroad as a housemaid next month.

Then I have to find out another place to live in. I work in a garment factory and my brother follows me with his friends on my salary day and snatches my salary to buy illegal alcohol. I am so confused and do not know what to do.

Those are very few cases among thousands of similar cases. Unfortunately sometimes even responsible persons such as law enforcement officers tend to think that alcoholism is something `normal'. Often they ignore the complaints by female victims of drug abusers and alcoholics. Most of the police officers see this problem as `family disputes' and they force female victims to be reconciled with their husbands.

According to Children's Development and Women's Empowerment Minister Sumedha G. Jayasena there are a few instances where married are killed by their drug addict and alcoholic husbands after complaining to the police on more than a few occasions. Therefore eradicating the drug and alcohol mania is very important when it comes to the safety and well-being of women and children.

Women and children suffer at the hands of drug addicts and alcoholics. They often target women and children because they are weak and tolerate all the pain without raising their voices. The decision-making levels of relevant authorities are male dominated and they never think about the plight of suffering women and children.

There is no use of rehabilitating and implementing other programmes when drugs and alcohol are freely available all over the country. But this truth was not highlighted. All the women who spoke about the Government's new programme praised the President's vision. "We benefit most from this programme", they added.