As drugs ruin teenagers’ lives, slum-dwellers feel helpless

You find drug consumers, cops tell residents

By Yukta Mudgal

“My beautiful daughter has become a living skeleton, she does not even look like a woman now,” said Shakina Begum (name changed), a slum-dweller in Hombegowda Nagar.

Shakina Begum, in her sixties, has lived in the slum since her birth. Tragedy struck after her husband died a few years ago. Her teenage daughter has become a drug addict. Begum, who sometimes eats food at a nearby anganwadi, finds it difficult to get her daughter treated for the addiction.This is the story of many in the slum.

Valli, a social worker in Koramangala, says police do not go into the dark corners of the slums where most teenagers consume drugs. “Many youngsters have even died, but nobody, not even the police, is able to trace where the drugs are coming from.”

Jennifer, a slum-dweller in Koramangala, has a brother who became a drug addict when he was 20. He hits her. Sometimes he even assaults their parents under the influence of drugs.

“He studied till class eight. He was pretty average, but never would he harm us or himself.

After getting influenced by his peers, he started taking drugs. Since then, he has cut his hand and even hit our parents several times. He has completely changed,” Jennifer said.

The Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, prohibits a person from the production/manufacture /cultivation, possession, sale, purchasing, transport, storage, and/ or consumption of any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance.

B.S. Ashok, police inspector, Anti-Narcotics Wing, Central Crime Branch (CCB), said the CCB has caught 100 Africans with drugs in Bengaluru.

Asked about drug addiction in slums, the inspector said there are no drug addicts there.. “They do not have money to spend on food. How will they spend on drugs?” Drugs like MDMA and LSD cost thousands of rupees.

But the social worker Valli said drug addicts steal from their neighbours to buy drugs. They also indulge in stabbing, fighting and eve-teasing.

Catching drug smugglers P3 yukta.m@iijnm.org

% of 5th-graders who can’t read class 2 texts up

Govt-run schools face enrolment, attendance issues

By Yashaswini Sri

Acomparison of ASER reports over the years has some startling findings: The percentage of fifth-graders who had trouble reading second grade-level texts has gone up significantly.

In 2012, the percentage of such students was 52.8, rising to 54.3 in 2014, to 58.1 in 2016, and declining to 52.4 in 2018. In 2022, it grew to a whopping 70.8.

The New Indian Express reports that ASER 2022 surveyed around seven lakh candidates from 19,060 schools across 616 districts to calculate the learning outcomes post-pandemic for schoolchildren. As many as 3.74 lakh households and 6.99 lakh children in the 3-16 age group were surveyed.

A. Joshi, a member of ASER Centre, explained Pratham Education Foundation’s data survey to The Observer: “Every even-numbered year ASER takes an All-India survey and records the results. We do a comparison study with the data available for even-numbered years. It is not possible for us to do surveys every year to do the survey annually.”

Ramesh Rathod, a headmaster at a Government Primary High School in Sandur taluk, Ballari district, said: “We have no issues with the enrolment and attendance rate in our school. However, we are always short of teachers in our school, especially teachers to teach English. With such short staff....children the individual student.

Rise in private tuitions P3 yashaswini.s@iijnm.org

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