‘Udta Punjab’ by Anurag Kashyap has brought the crisis of drug abuse that has gripped the State into mainstream discourse. The movie provides rare glimpses of the extent of the menace that affects all, without the bias of gender or class. The following section provides succinct previews about the worsening condition of Punjab.
At the outset, the intensity of the problem can well be gauged from the fact that about 60 per cent of the drugs confiscated in India are seized alone from Punjab. Also in the news was the the Drug Situation Report, September 2015, released by Narcotics Control Bureau, that claimed a seizure of 13.755 kg of heroin from Khemkaran, Amritsar. Dr. S.P.K. Jena, Associate Professor, Department of Applied Psychology, University of Delhi, says “not only these drug addictions have led to decrease in efficiency of the youth of Punjab but also has given rise to a number of criminal and anti-social activities.”
In a 2013 working paper, ‘Factors Driving Drug Abuse in India’s Punjab’ by Rahul Advani, Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS), it is stated that although there is no comprehensive study to determine the number of drug addicts in the State, it is estimated that 40 per cent of the Punjabi youth in the age group of 15-25 years have fallen prey to drugs.
If we were to apply this statistic to the total youth population of Punjab, this would suggest that roughly a population of about 1.5 to 2 million young Punjabis are addicted to drugs. According to a study ‘Drug Addiction in Punjab: A Sociological Study’, 2013, by Dr Ravinder Sandhu, UGC Emeritus Fellow, Department of Social Work, Punjab University, Patiala, reveals that such crimes in Punjab are nine times more than the national average. The study further states that 73.5 per cent of drug addicts belonged to the 16-35 age group. Dr Suman Gupta, Psychiatrist, Social Worker and Counsellor at Neuropsychiatry and Drug Deaddiction cum Rehabilitation Centre, Chandigarh, adds “the trends for drug consumption in Chandigarh are on its peak and are being equally consumed by both poor and rich sections.’’
As per the ISAS paper, the high proliferation of drug rackets and consumption in Punjab can be attributed to unemployment, agricultural economy, obsession with masculinity etc. as the economic growth of the State is hampered due to a downturn in agricultural productivity, resultant from over consumption of pesticides and fertilizers in the wake of green revolution. As per the study, “Impact of Delay in Investment Implementation in Punjab”, 2015, conducted by Assocham, a sharp declining trend has been observed in the growth performance of Punjab’s economy as the State’s overall growth has declined from 10.2 per cent in 2006-07 to 5 per cent in 2014-15.
The green revolution resulted in a large influx of workers from the states of UP, Rajasthan and Bihar because of which the native youth are subjected to competition in employment opportunities, along with substandard quality of education and unemployment. This incompetency further gives rise to distress due to which drug consumption shoots up not only for high priced drugs like opium and heroin but also cheap drugs in the form of tablets, capsules and injections. Most villages in Punjab do not have health clinics but usually have three to four drug stores which sell cheap pills as an affordable alternative to heroin.
The ISAS paper also adds that ‘increasing masculinity’ has also become a growing phenomenon for drug use. Usually, the most popular reason for drug abuse given by abusers is that they wanted to increase their sexual performance. This suggests that drug abuse is partially consumed for both display and realisation of masculine identity. Maqboolpura, a village in Punjab is called the ‘village of widows’ because of the large scale deaths of young men due to drug abuse, the paper points out.
As per the Punjab Opioid Dependency Survey, 2015, carried out by the Society for Promotion and Youth Masses and National Drug Dependence Centre, AIIMS, almost 80 per cent drug addicts report that they have tried to give up drug use in the past but just about 35 per cent have received any kind of help or treatment.
Jena further said that “not only does heroin and other drugs lead to slowing down of one’s reasoning ability, mental functioning and blockage of thought processes, but also has further consequences, in the form of secondary effects, like committing crimes and engaging in anti-social activities.” He also suggested methods, to overcome addiction, such as “counselling, psychotherapy and vocational training of people suffering from addiction.
Policies should be formulated with missionary zeal and strong political will power. The government should stop putting the drug abusers behind the bars and should rather try to understand their reasons for adopting drug addiction of any kind. The state is earning around INR 13 crore daily from the excise duty on sale of liquor but nothing is spent on the research on drug abuse.”
In Punjab, a host of factors are aggravating the depressing situation. And what further accentuates the crisis is the fact that the population suffering from drug addiction is primarily the youth who are fundamental to economic growth of any region.
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Steve Ovett, the famous British middle-distance athlete, won the 800-metres gold medal at the Moscow Olympics of 1980. Just a few days later, he was about to win a 5,000-metres race at London’s Crystal Palace. Known for his burst of acceleration on the home stretch, he had supreme confidence in his ability to out-sprint rivals. With the final 100 metres remaining,
[wptelegram-join-channel link=”https://t.me/s/upsctree” text=”Join @upsctree on Telegram”]Ovett waved to the crowd and raised a hand in triumph. But he had celebrated a bit too early. At the finishing line, Ireland’s John Treacy edged past Ovett. For those few moments, Ovett had lost his sense of reality and ignored the possibility of a negative event.
This analogy works well for the India story and our policy failures , including during the ongoing covid pandemic. While we have never been as well prepared or had significant successes in terms of growth stability as Ovett did in his illustrious running career, we tend to celebrate too early. Indeed, we have done so many times before.
It is as if we’re convinced that India is destined for greater heights, come what may, and so we never run through the finish line. Do we and our policymakers suffer from a collective optimism bias, which, as the Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman once wrote, “may well be the most significant of the cognitive biases”? The optimism bias arises from mistaken beliefs which form expectations that are better than the reality. It makes us underestimate chances of a negative outcome and ignore warnings repeatedly.
The Indian economy had a dream run for five years from 2003-04 to 2007-08, with an average annual growth rate of around 9%. Many believed that India was on its way to clocking consistent double-digit growth and comparisons with China were rife. It was conveniently overlooked that this output expansion had come mainly came from a few sectors: automobiles, telecom and business services.
Indians were made to believe that we could sprint without high-quality education, healthcare, infrastructure or banking sectors, which form the backbone of any stable economy. The plan was to build them as we went along, but then in the euphoria of short-term success, it got lost.
India’s exports of goods grew from $20 billion in 1990-91 to over $310 billion in 2019-20. Looking at these absolute figures it would seem as if India has arrived on the world stage. However, India’s share of global trade has moved up only marginally. Even now, the country accounts for less than 2% of the world’s goods exports.
More importantly, hidden behind this performance was the role played by one sector that should have never made it to India’s list of exports—refined petroleum. The share of refined petroleum exports in India’s goods exports increased from 1.4% in 1996-97 to over 18% in 2011-12.
An import-intensive sector with low labour intensity, exports of refined petroleum zoomed because of the then policy regime of a retail price ceiling on petroleum products in the domestic market. While we have done well in the export of services, our share is still less than 4% of world exports.
India seemed to emerge from the 2008 global financial crisis relatively unscathed. But, a temporary demand push had played a role in the revival—the incomes of many households, both rural and urban, had shot up. Fiscal stimulus to the rural economy and implementation of the Sixth Pay Commission scales had led to the salaries of around 20% of organized-sector employees jumping up. We celebrated, but once again, neither did we resolve the crisis brewing elsewhere in India’s banking sector, nor did we improve our capacity for healthcare or quality education.
Employment saw little economy-wide growth in our boom years. Manufacturing jobs, if anything, shrank. But we continued to celebrate. Youth flocked to low-productivity service-sector jobs, such as those in hotels and restaurants, security and other services. The dependence on such jobs on one hand and high-skilled services on the other was bound to make Indian society more unequal.
And then, there is agriculture, an elephant in the room. If and when farm-sector reforms get implemented, celebrations would once again be premature. The vast majority of India’s farmers have small plots of land, and though these farms are at least as productive as larger ones, net absolute incomes from small plots can only be meagre.
A further rise in farm productivity and consequent increase in supply, if not matched by a demand rise, especially with access to export markets, would result in downward pressure on market prices for farm produce and a further decline in the net incomes of small farmers.
We should learn from what John Treacy did right. He didn’t give up, and pushed for the finish line like it was his only chance at winning. Treacy had years of long-distance practice. The same goes for our economy. A long grind is required to build up its base before we can win and celebrate. And Ovett did not blame anyone for his loss. We play the blame game. Everyone else, right from China and the US to ‘greedy corporates’, seems to be responsible for our failures.
We have lowered absolute poverty levels and had technology-based successes like Aadhaar and digital access to public services. But there are no short cuts to good quality and adequate healthcare and education services. We must remain optimistic but stay firmly away from the optimism bias.
In the end, it is not about how we start, but how we finish. The disastrous second wave of covid and our inability to manage it is a ghastly reminder of this fact.