Women ‘rise up’ to fight drug menace in Kerala

Aghilesh*, a 15-year-old living at Vattappankadu village, was a habitual cannabis user. His addiction to drugs and alcohol badly impacted his education, leaving his family distressed.

After the span of one year, today Aghilesh is no longer a drug addict. Instead, he has become a promising football player.

Aghilesh is one of the 22 children identified by Gender Resource Centre of Kudumbashree – a congregation of women self-help groups working in Kerala – to be cured of addiction. After going through sustained treatment, psychological counselling, and care and support from the Gender Resource Centre, Aghilesh has managed to escape the trap of drug abuse.

Using drugs to escaping reality

The picturesque Vattappankadu, located in Vamanapuram administrative block of Thiruvananthapuram district on the fringes of Western Ghats, has been in the limelight for a long time for various social issues. It witnessed 10 suicides in the last one year. The village has 960 households. 

Most of the women here experience domestic violence. This strongly affects the children’s development. 

They lose hope in the budding years itself, which forces them to take to drugs, according to Divya Vijayan, a service provider at Kudumbasree who has been part of the drug eradication programme. The children’s stories resonate with her words.

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“My father is an alcoholic and he regularly beats up my mother in front of me. It was difficult for me to suppress my grief and anguish. Once, one of my friends gave me a small dose of a drug that provided me immense relief and pleasure,” recalled Ramesh*, a 14-year-old from Vattappankadu. 

“I started to long for that pleasant feeling. Since my family is poor, I didn’t have the money to buy drugs. It left me with no option but to start stealing,” he said.

Identifying drug abuse pattern 

Eighty percent of the villagers in Vattappankadu belong to the Kani tribal community. Addiction to alcohol and drugs was invariably connected to the social backwardness of the villagers. 

In July 2022, Kudumbasree volunteers conducted a door-to-door survey in all the households in the village. The survey results were shocking – 30 percent of the youth in Vattappankadu were addicted to drugs or alcohol. Adolescents were the most affected.

Based on the survey, people who were already in the grip of drug abuse and those prone to addiction were categorised. 

People having virulent symptoms were admitted to Karunasai De-addiction Centre in Thiruvananthapuram. The others were provided psychological counselling. For those who could not attend the counselling sessions, volunteers provided counselling at home. 

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As drug abuse and alcoholism among men and children has impacted women in the village, counselling sessions were held for them too.  

Women rise to the challenge

It was the women in the village, who are part of Kudumbashree – the state government’s poverty eradication and women empowerment programme – who decided to fight the menace. 

With the support of Nandhiyode village panchayat, Kerala State Excise Department and Gender Resource Centre under Kudumbashree, the women introduced Rise-up, a programme to eradicate alcoholism and drug addiction from Vattappankadu.     

The volunteers convinced 80 children in the village to attend anti-intoxication psychological counselling. Further observation indicated that 22 of them were severely addicted to drugs and / or alcohol.     

Vattappankadu is a remote village inside the forest. The remoteness helped drug peddlers access the village without any hindrance. In fact, there was a concerted attempt to disrupt the Rise-up programme. 

The women and other volunteers faced threats and challenges from the drug mafia for trying to eradicate drugs from the village. But they remained undeterred. 

Alcoholics and drug addicts used an abandoned building in the village to consume drugs. With the support of Excise Department officers, Kudumbasree volunteers took over the building and converted it into a resting place for women. The Excise Department also conducted periodic raids and searches to uproot the strongholds of the drug mafia.

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“We faced several threats. Electricity connection to our conference hall was disrupted by the opponents. We overcame these challenges with constant support from the officers,” said G Mallika, a community counsellor at Kudumbashree.

Football to fight drug addiction    

The state government included the Rise-up campaign at Vattappankadu village under Vimukthi – a dissemination campaign against intoxication under Kerala Excise Department. 

“Most of the children were undergoing mental trauma because of various family and social issues. This led to drug and alcohol addictions. So they have to be deeply engaged in some positive activities that provide them relaxation and relief,” said P K Jayaraj, assistant excise commissioner, Thiruvananthapuram, and district manager for the Vimukthi programme, who has conducted many counselling sessions for children. 

The community and volunteers chose football as the activity that the officer suggested. So the Rise-up Football Club was formed. 

The physical activity helps the children stay focussed and keeps them away from drugs and alcohol. At least 30 children gather every day and play football at the Vattappankadu playground. 

Within a short span, the football club has garnered accolades. They recently won the trophy at Vithura, a local football tournament.  

“I’m proud to say that I am no longer an addict. Football freed me from the clutches of drugs,” said Aghilesh.  

As the Rise-up programme nears completion, the Excise Department plans to introduce the programme in other villages where the similar problems prevail.

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* Names changed to protect privacy.

The lead image at the top shows the women members of Rise-up in front of the abandoned building that was earlier used by drug peddlers. (Photo by K Rajendran)

K Rajendran is a journalist based at Thiruvananthapuram.