Adam Ferguson

Photographs: Heroin in Manipur

In 2006, India's internal conflicts were listed by Medecins Sans Frontiers as one of the most unreported humanitarian stories in the world. At the heart of this statement are the ongoing insurgencies that plague India's notheastern states like Manipur, where up to 16 different militant groups fight for autonomy, or simply a piece of India's booming economic pie. The conflicts waged between militants and government forces leave the civilians of India's northeast living in marginalised communities that are politically volatile and economically stifled.

Amidst these tensions in Manipur's Churanchandpur District, a climate of minimal opportunity and high unemployment cause a large number of youth to turn to drugs to escape poverty. With heroin being produced in the 'Golden Triangle' that stretches between Myanmar (formerly Burma), China and Thailand, and a primary trafficking route being one from Myanmar across the porus border into India, Manipur's youth are vulnerable to a surplus of high quality cheap heroin.

After meeting youth battling heroin addiction on the streets and in rehabilitation centres, people living with HIV contracted through drug use, and families struggling internally with members using heroin, I began to document the lives devastated by Manipur's heroin trade. In a state already plagued by HIV, the second highest per capita in India, drug use facilitates the spread of disease, imposes health risks and degenerates Manipur's social fabric. Every family in Churanchandpur has or knows a user, a local explained to me.

But while heroin, believed to be trafficked by both militants and government forces, continues to flow across the border from India's rogue neighbour Myanmar, and corruption makes the stifling of the heroin trade almost impossible, trafficking goes on. And while India celebrates it's economic boom, little hope is left for any action to stop the free flow of heroin that devastates lives in India's volatile northeast.

Lal Hmuak Lian is injected by a friend with heroin in the neck at a drug dealer's house in Lamka, Churanchandpur, Manipur, India, 2007.
   
After injecting heroin, Lal Hmuak Lian sits in a brothel in New Bazar, the hub of heroin dealing in Churanchandpur, Manipur, India, 2007.
   
An injecting drug user who wishes to remain anonymous waits at the window of a brothel in New Bazar, Churanchandpur, Manipur, India, 2007. She is living with HIV and supports her heroin habit by sex working.
     
  
Sasang, a former heroin user who now works as a social worker with drug users, sits with his wife at their home in Churanchandpur, Manipur, India, 2007.
   
Siemthienlal, age 33 and living with HIV, gambles on the card game 'striker' in the street after leaving Sahara Rehabilitation Centre and returning to heroin use, New Bazar, Churanchandpur, Manipur, India, 2007
   
A view of the main street passing the Bazar in Churanchandpur, Manipur, India, 2007.
     
  
Lal Hmuak Lian prepares a syringe of heroin at a drug dealer's house in Lamka, Churanchandpur, Manipur, India, 2007.
   
An injecting drug user who wishes to remain anonymous, and supports her habit through sex working, lays with friends inside a brothel after injecting heroin in New Bazar, Churanchandpur, Manipur, India, 2007.
   
Biaki Lalbiaksang, age 28 and living with HIV, lays in bed at Shalom Community Care Centre Hospice in Lamka, Churanchandpur, Manipur, India, 2007. Biaki was referred to Shalom Hospice by MSF for HIV related illnesses. She believes she contracted HIV through contaminated injecting equipment while using Heroin for 9 years.
     
  
Heroin users sit outside a brothel and drug dealers house while daily market life goes on around them in New Bazar, Churanchandpur, Manipur, India, 2007.
   
Thlang Rawnvel walks down the street on his way home in Churanchandpur, Manipur, India, 2007. Thlang Rawnvel is 32 years old and has been using heroin for 15 years.
  
Tung Tuang, age 24, sits with his mother at their home in Churanchandpur, Manipur, India, 2007. Tung Tuang has been using heroin for 7 years and lost his brother who hung himself at their family home because he couldn't stop using heroin.
     
  
A young man removes heroin hidden in his pants to do a drug deal on the street in Churanchandpur, Manipur, India, 2007.
   
Ginkhanson, age 23, has his head shaved at Gilead's Balm Rehabilitation Center, after being admitted by his parents for heroin use, in Churanchandpur, Manipur, India, 2007. Gilead's Balm generally gets served a request by heroin users parents, as in Ginkhanson's case, to catch and incarcerate their child. Inmates can be imprisoned and chained for periods of up to six months without trial despite being served a notice by the government of India to cease using a chain system. Numerous centers like Gilead's Balm operate in Churanchandpur, charging inmates parents 1500 IR a month. Previous inmates report incidents of beatings, suicide, torture and deaths, and of all the people I interviewed, all had returned to using heroin. Staff at Gilead's Balm have no formal training in rehabilitation and counseling, and would not let me photograph freely inside their center. This image was stolen and when interviewing current clients it was clear they were too scared to speak out for fear of the repercussions once I had left.
   
Siemthienlal, age 33 and living with HIV, stands in the street near New Bazar after leaving Sahara Rehabilitation Centre and returning to heroin use, in Churanchandpur, Manipur, India, 2007.