By Arpana Adhikari

Kathmandu, Jan. 5: Some three months ago, an 18-year-old girl of Bouddha was raped by her boyfriend. After gathering her courage, she tried to file a rape case in police, thinking that she had done a right thing by knocking the door of justice.
To her utter dismay, the officers in Bouddha Police Station refused to register her complaint as she was a substance abuser (widely known as a drug addict). The persons like her are treated as criminals by the law of land. The Narcotics Drug (Control) Act clearly states that drug abuse is a punishable crime.
They not only refused to register her complaint, but the police also humiliated her. Left with no choice, she sought the support of activists for getting justice.
“After days of struggle, the police finally lodged her complaint. But the heinous crime ended not in the rapist getting punishment but in a reconciliation, as her family forced her to keep silent out of fear of social exclusion,” said Kamala Sherpa, a field worker of Dristi Nepal, the organisation working for female drug users (FDU)
Nilam Rai, another activist said, “This is one of several female substance abusers in Nepal, who has been facing sexual violence by their partners. The incident related to Bouddha girl is a serious inconsistency how police forces have been handling rape allegations of FDU.”
Since 14 years, Sabina, 23, FDU of Ason (name and location changed for the security concern), has been living with her abusive substance abuser husband.
Being influenced by her partner, she started taking drugs at the age of 15. As they both were school dropouts who were abandoned by their families, Sabina turned to prostitution to support the need of her partner and her own.
Her husband often punches and kicks her. This sometimes resulted in bruises, broken bleeding nose and other injuries, said Sabina.
But two months ago, her abusive husband turned too violent. He brutally stabbed her with broken glass because she refused to give him jewelry to buy drugs. But thanks to one of the field workers of the Dristi Nepal (DN), who reached the spot for the service, she survived the attack. She called police and saved her life. “Anything could have happened, if she had not called the police,” said Sabina.
She wanted to come out of this but she had nowhere to go, said Sabina, adding that she was forced to live with him.
At a very tender age, Roshni of Kathmandu fell to drug addiction due to peer pressure. She got married to a drug abuser.
At the age of 23, she was unwittingly made drug courier by her husband and her in-laws, who were in drug peddling.
She came to know this only when the police caught her raid handed. She thought she was taking the drugs for her husband’s use, but later she realised his whole family was engaged in drug peddling.
She did her best to prove herself innocent, but her in-laws and husband duped her forcing her to pass four-year jail sentence for doing ‘nothing’.
She has already completed her jail-sentence and now is working as a peer educator of the DN and helping other drug users to get out of this dark side of life.
These are only a few narrated stories of FDU. There are many other dark sides of their life which are left untold.
Nepal is one of many countries that are not immune to the drug problems.
It is estimated that there are around 200,000 drug users in Nepal. According to the report of the Central Bureau Statistic (CBS) 2011, there are around 45,000 male and around 3,200 female drugs users.
And the rate of the substance abusers is increasing by 11.36 per cent annually.  According to a survey, conducted by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2013, the number of total drug users is 36,998 with Kathmandu having highest number of abusers in the country. Of 6,330 FDU of Nepal 3,485 are in Kathmandu.
Considering the annual growth of 11.36 per cent, the number of female users might have already reached to 5,860 in the Kathmandu.
“Although the problem of drug abuse among women is being increasingly recognised, drug using women are looked down upon and stigmatized more than the male drug abusers ever have to face,” said Parina Subba Limbu, a founder of Dristi Nepal: Rights to Existence.
DN, which was conceptualised by former drug user Subba some 15 years ago, has been reaching out to the female drug abusers of Lalitpur and Kathmandu and raising awareness about drugs and HIV/AIDS, advocating for their rights, providing skill-based training and reintegrate them into the family.
According to her, many FDU have been facing sexual and physical assault by their male partners and peer groups, but they hardly speak up. They are compelled to involve in commercial sexual activity, as a means of enhancing income to support drugs use and some were innocently being involved in the drug peddling, she added.
Sarita Gurung, another field worker, said many FDU were forced by their male partners and peer group to buy and supply drugs and syringes for them. “In the course of this, many of them were caught by the police on the charge of drug peddling,” she said.
Nilam Rai, another activist, said of late around 120 female drugs users of Kathmandu and Lalitpur are in their contact and majority of them were injecting drug users.
“This number keeps changing because they keep moving from one place to another, in search of the job and to find new places to involve in drug taking,” said Rai. “By risking our life, we have been providing syringes and condoms to save them from the risk of getting infected with HIV. But our field workers face hassles from the police. They accused us for promoting drug addiction,” said Nilam.
According to her, female drugs users are between 14-40 years and majority of them are between the ages of 18-25, she added.
The major hotspot of drug taking in Kathmandu is Thamel due to the nature of this place .While the other hotspots of the drug abusers are Budanilkantha, Sorhakhutte, Satdobato, Chapagaun, Jawalakhel, Balaju among others, said Nilam.
Majority of these female drug users are involved in commercial sex, said Nilam adding that some of them are the HIV infected while majority of them are uneducated, poor, school dropout, unemployed and abandoned by the family. “Dire economic condition and the lure of money often lead these women to become involved in drug carrying and peddling activities,” Nilam said.
Women drug users face social stigma and gender bias
Parina said Nepal’s FDU have to battle gender bias, social stigma, poverty, sexual violence. According to her, mostly the reason why women and men starts taking drugs are same- imitation, peer pressure and means to escape from the poverty, depression and abusive relationship.
“But once hooked to addiction, women are convicted and suffer stigma and discrimination throughout the life. Life became tough for women drug users when they are looking for help that is traditionally available only to men,” she added.
Unlike male drugs users, it is not easy for the female drug addicts to escape from the dreadful life. Neither the family, society nor the state support the female drugs users to come out of the addiction, as they do for the male drugs users, said Parina.
In most cases related to drug abuses, the abusers are sent to rehabilitation centers. But most of such centres cater to the needs of male abusers and the cost of such centres remains a major barrier. Women often discover themselves apprehensive to attend such enters, she added.
Because of the poor financial condition, the chances of relapsing are high among drug users, so the Dristi is helping women get skills and earn, said Parina.
The government and even the development agencies have remained ignorant over the issue of female drug users. The issue of female drugs users are not included in any policy and project, she claimed. “So it’s high time to deal with it,” said Parina.
Government Policies and programme
The government is yet to revise the Narcotics Drug (Control) Act which was formulated 43 years ago.
One of the senior officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs shared that it was very important to revise the outdated provisions as per the international trend and growing challenges in curbing narcotics related transnational crimes.
He further added that the ministry had been preparing directives to operate the rehabilitation centers.
“However, the ministry has not allocated separate budget for the drug abusers and there is no such special programmes for them,” the official said.
The ministry has been planning to establish dedicated bed at each hospital so that drug abusers can get treatment and detoxify their body, the official added