Government Figures Reveal Startling Rise in De-addiction Centre Footfalls
Srinagar, KNT: A silent storm continues to sweep across Jammu and Kashmir, and it’s not just the rain. Beneath the surface of political discourse and developmental noise, a devastating drug crisis is tightening its grip on the region, minute by minute.
Newly revealed official data, presented by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in Parliament, lays bare a harrowing reality: drug addiction in J&K has now reached such a scale that, on average, one person seeks treatment every single minute in Kashmir and one every three minutes in Jammu.
The numbers are rooted in hard data collected from just two facilities: the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS) in Srinagar and the de-addiction centre at Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu. Together, they tell a tale of desperation, pain, and systemic overburdening.
In 2023 alone, IMHANS recorded an overwhelming 5,79,595 patient visits, translating to more than one visit every 60 seconds throughout the year. The trend hasn’t slowed in 2024. By June 30, 2,23,749 patients had already sought help there, maintaining the grim average of one addict per minute.
The story in Jammu is equally unsettling. At GMC Jammu, 2,34,107 patients came through the doors in 2023, or one every 2.2 minutes. This year so far, 1,04,002 people have turned to the same facility for help, equating to one new case every three minutes.
What’s even more troubling is that these figures represent only a fraction of the bigger picture. The government confirms that J&K currently has 15 officially sanctioned Addiction Treatment Facilities (10 in Kashmir, 5 in Jammu), nine NGO-managed centres, and one Integrated Rehabilitation Centre for Addicts in Pulwama. Yet, only two centres, IMHANS and GMC Jammu, are being referenced to gauge the crisis.
Public health experts and mental health workers are sounding alarms. “If this is the scale we are seeing at just two facilities, imagine what the combined numbers would be across all centres — including the cases never reported or treated,” said a psychiatrist working at one of the facilities.
Every district in the Union Territory is also equipped with a Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan (NMBA) Cell — meant to coordinate awareness campaigns and drug intervention strategies, but on the ground, the battle remains uneven and under-resourced.
What these figures reflect is not just a clinical problem but a societal breakdown. Heroin, pharmaceutical opioids, synthetic drugs — the list of substances continues to grow, as does the age range of those affected. Teenagers, young professionals, labourers, even women, addiction does not discriminate.
Yet, the crisis is treated more like a statistic than a symptom of a deeper malaise. While the government has sanctioned facilities and run campaigns, the sheer pace at which new patients are entering rehab centres shows that the problem is outpacing the solutions. [KNT]
