Officials in northwestern Badakhshan province are worried about the increasing heroin addiction among women and children. The women, addicted to opium in the past, have now started seeking refuge in heroin.

A female member of provincial council, Gulalay Akbari, quoted residents of border districts as saying addiction among women and children was on the rise. The number of addicts has gone well beyond 10,000.

Most of women addicts are dwellers of Shaghnan, Wakhan, Shkisham, Kiran Manjan and Darwazaha districts, bordering Pakistan and Tajikistan. She claimed many children were affected by the scourge. "When a child cries or complains of pains, mothers make them take opium dozes."
Safarma, belonging to the Shadooj village of Shaghnan district, admitted her two young daughters and a 12-year-old son were taking heroin. The 45 years old, who started using opium three years back, is now smoking heroin.

"When my body ached, I was unable to visit a doctor because of heavy winter snows. In order to heal my pains, I used opium," she recalled. There are well-connected elements that bring her and other addicts opium and other drugs, according to her.

"My husband has also been a junkie for the last 10 years," she informed, demanding the construction of a rehabilitation centre in the area to treat the large number of women addicts.

Worse still, the scourge has penetrated schools. "I was an eighth-grade student when a classmate took me to her house. She offered me a bit of opium. I have since been addicted to it," Nazia, 35, said.

Her elderly parents are also addicts. But her brother has been able to resist the unhealthy lure of narcotics. The victim, who came to Faizabad from the remote Wakhan district, sold five sheep to fund her treatment.

Provincial council member Akbari did convince the government and international organisations to set up a hospital for treating drug addicts. But the project was shelved due to the August 20 presidential and provincial elections.

Referring to a 2005 survey of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), former Public Health Department official Dr. Abdul Shakoor put at around 8,000 the number of addicts registered in the mountainous province.

Based on assessments of area people, the number of addicts has gone up to 12,000 and 12 percent of them are women and children. Dr. Abdul Shakoor has treated 1,684 including 360 women and 52 children this solar year.

Although a private centre for addicts, Wadan, recently started operation in the far-flung province, officials believe the facility is unable to rehabilitate all the addicts. Dr. Najibullah, director of the centre, said they had treated 75 addicts -- 10 of them women and four children.

He added the addicts were given free medicines and counseled on giving up the menace. His remarks contradict the official claim that the province is drug-free.

Last year, the Counter Narcotics Ministry said there were 1.5 million addicts nationwide. But the ministry is yet to release statistics for the current year.