SHILLONG: He realised the value of life the hard way. His grit is an invaluable encouragement to those who are suffering from drug or alcohol related problems and want a new life.
Sanjay Singh Bisht is the Director of the Shillong Centre of Asha Bhawan, a pan-India rehabilitation programme for substance abusers and alcoholics at Nongrah in the city.
Having lost his parents when he was just nine, Sanjay spent his childhood on the street instead of a school. His brother later took him to Gharwal, the northwestern region and administrative division of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, but would scold him on every issue that prompted him to run away to the national capital.
Bisht worked as a child porter at New Delhi Railway Station.
Since child labour is banned in the country, he was picked up by the Railway Police and sent to an observatory home on the outskirts of Delhi. There he got his early education till standard five but managed to escape, again.
He recalled how he became a smoker and later turned into an alcoholic. “I got addicted through my street friends. Smoking was like a status as we watched the cinema heroes on the silver screen,” he said adding that smoking later developed to alcohol. However, as fate had stored for him, he came in contact with Butterflies, a voluntary organisation working with the most vulnerable groups of children, especially street and working children in the country.
Bisht completed his matriculation and senior secondary with the assistance of Butterflies. After that he even obtained a Diploma in Early Childhood Care. He was a special educator working with street children and counselling HIV patients for Butterflies.
Bisht is associated with the Shillong Centre for three years now and with Asha Bhawan for the last nine years. He was deputed here from the headquarters after he completed his rehabilitation programme on alcoholism.
The young fighter recalled how he joined Asha Bhawan in 2010 as an alcoholic. He suffered for many years due to his habits which he contacted from his friends but they were friends only who guided him to stay in Asha Bhawan.
He initially joined the Gurgaon Centre with an intention to leave after completing his rehabilitation programme for 18 months. Later, he joined the New Delhi Centre as a volunteer followed by Coimbatore and now in Shillong.
“We can go outside and serve as volunteer. But I had chosen this or else I might go astray again. I decided to stay back and help the needy. It is good and satisfying,” he said.
At the Asha Bhwan Centre here, there are 30 patients lodged at the moment who are undergoing improvement courses. The rehabilitation programmes are completely free of cost but the centre accepts donations from those who are willing to contribute.
The centre gets assistance from its headquarters in Gurgaon. They are also collecting funds through rehabilitated addicts by way of selling customised calendars and postcards of Asha Bhawan.
Bisht said there are many people who are coming without any clothes and they help them by collecting used clothes from door to door. The centre has patients from Shillong, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland.
The centre has space for 35 patients. It has five trained monitors, who are rehabilitated addicts, giving practical and sympathetic direction to each member of the programme by regular teaching, counselling, housing and sporting activities in an interactive atmosphere and discipline based on a daily timetable.
The centre does not provide medical treatment or medicines. “We are taking cases of drug abuse, alcoholism and other substance abuse. We get mentally retarded cases also but cannot take them since there is no facility,” said Bisht.
However, for any medical assistance the patients are taken to the Civil Hospital and if there is any need for medicines, relatives are asked to support voluntarily.
“We don’t force anybody to stay here. We don’t have any lock and key facility. It depends entirely on the will of the person who wants to improve themselves,” said Bisht.
The volunteers of Asha Bhawan also hold awareness campaigns, de-addiction drives, sharing testimonies with police stations, institutions and society at large.
Asha Bhawan has 16 centres in the country besides Nepal and Mongolia. The centre here in the city is also receiving assistance from generous officials in the government, besides businessmen and individuals in the form of ration items and other household utility materials.
