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Journalism of Courage
When filmmaker Leichil Luwang was approached by local harm reduction NGO Nirvana Foundation to make a short documentary on the effect of drug abuse on women and their families, he smiled at the coincidence, and his luck. For months, Luwang had been toying with a similar project, trying to find subjects and funds.
For the documentary, Luwang chose two types of affected women 8212; those who had lost their husbands to drug abuse and HIV/AIDS, and those who had left their families and had taken up sex work to support their drug addiction.
The rest of his work, he says, was an emotional one. 8220;When I walked into the red light area and saw the condition they lived in, it became more than a project. I felt I had to do something for them.8221;
What emerged was Punshi Life, a 15-minute documentary in Manipuri with six candid and touching interviews 8212; there was no attempt to hide identities, just women talking about having to live with HIV passed on to them by their dead husbands, of battling social stigma and the lack of family support.
On Tuesday, the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, Luwang and the Nirvana Foundation screened Punshi for a select audience. The audience included a representative from the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, which commissioned the documentary through Nirvana.
In the film, a sex worker and a drug user says her heroin addiction is so severe that she needs at least Rs 600 worth of heroin a dose, and seven to eight doses a day. Her only means to that kind of money is sex work, she says, even if that means having to live with HIV. Nirvana8217;s workers say there are many 8217;female injecting drug users8217; and sex workers in Imphal, and beyond harm reduction, little has been done.
8220;My husband told me about his drug addiction and HIV status only after our marriage. He died a few years ago, leaving me with two children, now 11 and seven. I don8217;t want any publicity, but what I8217;d like to say is: think about my predicament, and then consider if drug abuse is worth it,8221; one of the subjects told us. She is only 29.
