Drug-related deaths in Punjab: Govt says no data, not keeping count

“The social stigma is so deeply imbibed in such cases that families fear village may boycott them or police may get after them as their kin died of drugs. They just want to rush it and end the matter passing it off as natural death,” said the official. Punjab’s Health Minister Brahm Mohindra said there is no record available with the government on drug deaths in Punjab. “Even I was looking for some data on it. I tried a lot but there is nothing available. Families never get autopsies done and it never comes on record. Families feel ashamed and do not share actual cause of death if it is due to drugs.”

A senior health official said no government in Punjab had ever attempted a data collection survey on drug-related deaths. According to the Health minister, there is “no way” to determine the number of drug deaths in Punjab. “Even if we try, no one will come forward or volunteer to share that their family member died due to drugs. Also, there can always be fabrication or lack of authenticity. I do not think there is any way out to collect such data or information on number of drug deaths in Punjab,” Mohindra said. However, Harpreet Singh Sidhu, head of the STF constituted by the CM, indicated that there was a plan to collect such data in collaboration with the health department.

“At present, no such data is available. Even we were trying to get hold of some numbers. We are planning to set such data collected through a survey through a tie-up with the health department,” says Sidhu. The Indian Express, however, located several families who had lost a loved one to addiction, and spoke to 16 families across Punjab who had lost a family member to drugs in the last one year. In all cases, the person had a history of addiction; some had been to de-addiction centers but resumed the habit immediately upon discharge; some were suffering from infections or diseases linked to use of contaminated needles to inject drugs into themselves.

The families claimed that drugs continue to be available in Punjab and that local drug peddlers still roam the the streets looking for customers. Gurnam Singh, sarpanch of Ghaloti village of Moga, says, “I have been writing to get a survey on drug deaths done for two years now. I had even made a list of twelve such deaths and submitted to administration requesting that an official survey be conducted on number of drug deaths in my village. No one ever came.”

Rajesh Kumar, a Congress sarpanch of Chaunta village in Ludhiana, says he has no fear in saying that the drug business is continuing. “Visit our village anytime and (you will see that) local suppliers roam here. They have regular clients and they know where and when the stuff has to be supplied. Everything happens under police’s nose and even if they are given a tip-off, there is no action. Shareyaam nasha vik reha hai (Drugs are being sold openly). Earlier we were blaming SAD-BJP and now even Congress is passing it off.”