This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.

'Boyfriend's Demand For Money Forced Me To Work As A Call Girl' — Letters From Addicts To Mumbai Police

Some of the letters and emails they received were heartbreaking, the police told Mid-Day.
Image used for representational purposes only.
Lucy Nicholson / Reuters
Image used for representational purposes only.

Over the past few months, Thane Police received several cries for help from teens and college-goers addicted to drugs. Some of the letters and emails they received were particularly heartbreaking and worrying, the police told Mid-Day.

For example, in a letter they received from a student who attended a college in Mumbai's Bandra, a woman detailed how she and her boyfriend were so dependent on narcotics that they couldn't imagine living without it. She said her partner beat her up and abused her for cash to buy drugs. She felt compelled to give in to these demands. And when she asked for a loan from a friend, the latter suggested she take up prostitution — which she did, to support her and her boyfriend's need for drugs.

"I would reach a lodge or an office as instructed by friends and would be paid Rs 5,000 per person. My boyfriend's increasing demand for money forced me to work as a call girl," MidDay reports the girl confessing in the letter.

Mumbai-based Rajendra Kurade, who runs a de-addiction Centre in Kalyan, told the tabloid that they received at least 25 letters from students, especially girls seeking rehabilitation, which they shared with Thane police.

Azam Sheikh, who has launched a de-addiction initiative along with Kurade, told MidDay that they approached Thane police on receiving these letters. The police helped them cover various schools as a part of an awareness programme.

Kurade told MidDay that the scourge is unbelievable. "Girls' photos are circulated on WhatsApp to solicit clients, which include politicians and businessmen. Teenage girls are high in demand and are paid Rs 5,000, while the agent takes almost Rs 10,000," he said.

In January last year, the Mumbai Police was in news for their social media campaign against the consumption of drugs and marijuana. Using the hashtag #HoshMeinAao, the Mumbai Police posted quirky tweets like, "have you 'meth' us?" and warned youngsters against drug abuse.

Hindustan Times reported last year that not just cannabis, drugs are readily available on campus in several colleges in Mumbai. Alpesh Panchal, a clinical psychiatrist and a de-addiction specialist told Hindustan Times: "Ten years ago, we saw about one student in a class of 200 for doing hard drugs. We now see at least 20 students on Meow Meow and cannabis. They get drugs on campus as easily as pizza."

The report mentions that alarmed by the rise of drug abuse on campus, in 2016, the ministry of human resource development had published a new set of regulations to rein in the threat.

In July this year, however, the Mumbai Police found that it was the use of marijuana which had shot up in college campuses. Hindustan Times reports: "The findings came as a surprise as psychotropic, synthetic and recreational drugs such as heroin, brown sugar or mephedrone (MD) were thought to have replaced weed in campuses since 1990."

In June, the police in Mumbai had begun an initiative named 'drug-free campuses' on receiving multiple reports that drugs were being peddled within and right outside campuses with impunity.

Close
This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.