Chowrangi

India is fast emerging as an alternative to the traditionally popular route of Iran and the Balkan countries for the smuggling of heroin originating from Afghanistan, which supplies 92per cent of the world’s consumption.

The world Drug Report 2007, released by the United Nation Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), estimates that 48% of the total heroin manufactured in Afghanistan is smuggled through using India as the main transit route.

The emergence of the new trafficking route is the result of huge seizured made along the conventional routes along Iran, Turkey and Balkan countries. International drug syndicates, mostly involving African operators, have been recently using India as a major transit country for all Europe and America bound drug consignments.

This leaves a sizable population along the trafficking routes vulnerable to drug addiction, says the UN reports which has warned drug enforcement agencies here to carefully monitor the trend over the coming years as the India has high levels of poverty and HIV infected populations, the most vulnerable sections to the scourge.

India is also rapidly becoming a major producer of opium, the total opium production is India is said to be 6,100 tonnes and the frightening poverty is compelling people to join the drug trafficking, drug production and drug addiction very fastly. The significant rise in Indian narcotics market can also be seen in huge seizures which are made in India every now and then.

Poverty and the blind race to copycat the west, India is also fast becoming hub for prostitution. This alarming trend isn’t just limited to large cities, but also sweeped to the towns and villages, because its one of the easy money for many of the people who are living below the poverty line. This is producing loads of HIV/AIDs patients and India is now considered one of the leading countries which have most AIDs patients.

And then Indian administration is hell bent on occupying the territories of its neighbours, its hell bent on amassing tons and tons of weapons of every kind from every nook of the planet, its hell bent on fabricating intrigues for other nations, its hell bent on doing more and more nuclear test. Shouldn’t it exert its resources on other human issues, rather than to try to intimidate its neighbours?

Other posts by Commoner

• India Wants People, Who are Not There - December 3rd, 2008
• Test For US to Lower Tension - December 3rd, 2008
• Not So Grave - December 2nd, 2008
• Adil Najam: A Mumbaikar? - December 2nd, 2008
• Save Karachi - December 1st, 2008
• Belligerency Won't Take us Anywhere - December 1st, 2008
• Careless Approach by Nuclear India - November 30th, 2008
• Indo-Pak Tension - November 30th, 2008
• India Should Solve Its Own Problems - November 29th, 2008
• Implicating ISI in Mumbai Attacks - November 29th, 2008