Female drug users in Asia call for greater access to services

Submitted by baralee about 2 years ago

When the problems associated with injection drug use in Asia are discussed, stigma and discrimination are often listed among users’ main concerns. For female injection drug users (IDUs), these problems are often exacerbated.

Onuma, a female IDU from Thailand said, “If you were injecting drugs, you would face discrimination. If you were a female IDU, you would be treated worse than men and if you were a female IDU living with HIV you would be at the bottom of the scale – completely worthless.”

Many Asian countries are adopting harm reduction approaches to the respond to HIV, and drop-in centres and programmes for IDUs are available in some areas. Unfortunately, few of these services cater to the needs of women.

Ekta, a founding member of Recovering Nepal, who works with the National Association for AIDS Network in Nepal, said that female IDUs in the country remained largely hidden.

“We have some abstinence-based rehabilitation centres, a methadone programme, and syringe exchange services, but women are not informed and therefore do not access those services,” Ekta said.

Women should be told what services are available and how they can be adapted to meet their needs.

Poverty, illiteracy and a lack of educational opportunities have held many women back, limiting their understanding of their own rights and forcing them to remain heavily reliant on their partners.

“In Nepal, we don’t have legal security, we don’t get citizenship until our father or maybe husband get us citizenship. Women are the key and principal caregivers. They always have children or husbands to take care of,” Ekta said.

“Taking responsibility for the family is more important for women and girls and such responsibilities are blocking them from getting services. They are concerned with their children and often in our country, many don’t have husbands.”

Many of the services available to IDUs are male-oriented if not completely male dominated. According to Onuma few women are treated with respect at her local drop-in centre.

“Male clients at the drop-in centre do not treat female IDUs with respect and some of female clients have refused to come to the drop-in centre because the male clients were rude to them,” Onuma said.

In areas where separate facilities are not available for men and women, cases of sexual harassment and abuse have been reported. This needs to be addressed and mechanisms should to be developed to educate women’s partners about their needs and to ensure they have support.

Ekta said that many programmes for women focus solely on getting them to stop taking drugs and to find work. But when women struggle to quit and relapse, they often face higher levels of stigma and discrimination.

“Personally, my biggest problem is relapse. I have relapsed so many times ... the rehabilitation people didn’t want to admit me. They said ‘What is the use of enrolling Ekta because she will relapse after three months ...’”

“I am struggling for my life ... Please accept us as drug users. We cannot stop using drugs all at once.”

 

Keywords: female IDUs Goa 2008 Harm Reduction women

Southern Asia 2 comments Mail a friend Edit