Breaking Silence, Restoring Dignity |
The discourse around drug abuse has long been trapped in narrow frames such as criminality, morality, or at best public health. Yet this limited understanding obscures a deeper and more unsettling truth. Drug addiction is fundamentally a human rights issue. Nowhere does this reality demand more urgent attention than in Jammu and Kashmir where a rapidly escalating drug crisis is not only destroying lives but systematically eroding the basic rights dignity and future of its people.
To call drug abuse a human rights violation is not rhetorical exaggeration. It is a legal and moral assertion grounded in internationally recognised principles. The right to health the right to life with dignity the right to development and the right to equality are all directly implicated when addiction takes root in a society and is met with inadequate institutional response. In Jammu and Kashmir the convergence of socio political history economic stagnation and limited healthcare infrastructure has created fertile ground for this crisis to grow unchecked.
Recent data underscores the scale of the problem. Government estimates and independent reports suggest that Jammu and Kashmir has one of the highest rates of substance abuse in India with opioids particularly heroin driving the surge. The Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Srinagar has reported tens of thousands of registered substance use cases with a disturbing proportion comprising young people between the ages of 17 and 33. This is not merely a public health emergency. It is a generational emergency.
At its core addiction in this region reflects a failure to uphold the right to health. Under international law including the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to which India is a signatory governments are obligated to ensure access to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. This includes prevention treatment and rehabilitation services for substance abuse. Yet in Jammu and Kashmir de addiction facilities remain........