National Capital a hotbed of illegal de-addiction centres

A pick up from home for Rs 700 and Rs 5,500 for a month's stay, is what the Nasha Mukti Kendra (de-addiction centre) located in an obscure lane of East Delhi's Babarpur charges for getting rid of any kind of addiction. This rehabilitation centre, like many others, huddled in various parts of the Capital, functions like a secret operation.

"What is the kind of addiction you want to get rid of? We will pick you up from home for Rs 700 and then you will have to stay here for three months, at least. However, nobody shall accompany you, nor visit you here throughout the stay," said the voice over the phone when a DNA reporter, posing as a potential patient, was told as they would not let any outsider enter the premises.

When insisted, that the patient is around the centre and would be able to drop in, the voice over the phone said, they can't do that, as only a pick-up service from home is allowed.

Last July, Vinod Kumar, 52, a businessman from southwest Delhi's Naraina fell prey to one such de-addiction centre, when his son, in a bid to withdraw a large sum of money from the father's account, falsely accused him of being an alcoholic and allegedly bribed the local police to get his father picked up from home ans sent to this de-addiction centre, where he was kept confined for two-and-a-half months.

Kumar, though now out of the centre, describes the place as a "hellhole". Kumar said he still gets nightmares and it was only after his brother filed a plea in the Delhi High Court that he was freed from the centre - Vinayak Foundation - illegally running from Rohini sector-22.

"The centre was worse than a jail. Not even stray animals are treated the way they kept 33 inmates huddled in one room. They had four bouncers who would beat us up, day in and out. The place was like a prison with no room for sunlight to come in. The room was full of a stench from seepage to urine to dirty linen. I fell sick there and would beg my son to let me out once when he visited," said Kumar, who soon lost his wife, as she could not bear the situation.

However, Kumar said, that when his wife and father came to visit, the centre owner didn't let them see him.

"They told my father that I was violent and aggressive, and that I would abuse them. When my father begged to let them see me, they said he could see me only through video," he said.

The men at the centre would punish the inmates in the garb of exercise. They would tell them to stand on LPG gas cylinder for half an hour and each time they miss the balance, the men would rough them up.

With the surroundings, the food also was unhygienic and stale, Kumar said while recounting his ordeal.

"All the inmates, including me, were not addicts while some were dumped by their families, the others were hardened criminals. However, the centre would administer some de-addiction pills to everyone, even as no doctor, counselor or psychologist ever visited the place. Anyone who complained was beaten up," he stated.

This centre, now closed after the court orders, used to charge Rs 10,000 per month from the families of the inmates. For those inmates, whose family had stopped sending the money, they were used as full -time servants to do all the chores such as cleaning or cooking for everyone, but in no case were they released.

"There were many, including some elderly inmates, who had been dumped by their children and had stopped paying the centre. One of them once tried to flee, he was beaten up mercilessly and his legs were broken," said Kumar.

However, he said, even though the court ordered the closure of the centre after the petition, the day the court commissioners reached the spot for inspection, the owner got most of the inmates sent over to another place.

After the case highlighted the serious violations of human rights at the centre, the high court has formed a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe how these centres have come up and are running without any permit or recognition in the Capital.

The court had recently observed that there were 250-300 such illegal centres functioning in various parts of the city, with a majority of these scattered around the outskirts such as Rohini, Karawal Nagar, Babarpur and Nand Nagri, among others.

The court directed the Delhi government and the municipal corporations to form teams comprising medical experts and police personnel to conduct a mapping exercise across the city to immediately shut down such centres.

While examining Kumar's case, the court noted that the centre in question was operating without a permission or license from the police, municipal bodies or the health department.

In a report submitted by the court commissioners, appointed to inspect the centre, it revealed that there was neither a doctor, psychologist, psychiatrist, a qualified counselor or any medical facility available for help at the centre.

However, Kumar is still not at peace, as his brother is now allegedly being harassed by the local police for approaching the court in the matter.

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for March 22.

Meanwhile, the municipal corporations have initiated a crackdown with the East MCD issuing showcause notices to 11 de-addiction centres, while the North Corporation has issued notices to 7 centres. However, the South Corporation had its first meeting over the issue last week and is mulling a mapping exercise.

"We have issued notices to these centres, as they were found running without any permissions or approval from any government body. While this is primarily not the MCD's job to inspect such centres, as de-addiction centres in Delhi are monitored by the Delhi government's Social Welfare Department, we have to do the exercise as per the court directions," said a senior East MCD official.

According to officials in the social welfare department, there are only six de-addiction centres running under various government hospitals in the Capital while there are around 498 centres run by NGOs and are recognised by the government.

"We have around 20 patients here. Most of them are involved in petty crimes and addicted to brown sugar while few are on fluids such as whiteners and other substances. Some patients come on their own and the rest are sent by their families. However, some of these get out and open their own centres only with the aim of making money," said Dinesh Kumar, caretaker at one of the government-recognised rehabilitation centres in East Delhi.