De-addiction centres in India have been known to hold drug users against their will, beat them and deny them medicines including those that relieve withdrawal symptoms.
SHARAN, an NGO working with people who use drugs, has intervened in a petition Talwinder Pal Singh v. State of Punjab, asking for clinical and human rights standards in drug dependence treatment.
Trupti Tandon of the Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit (LCHAU) writes in the AIDS-India egroup that the case dates back to August 2008 when a drug user at a de-addiction centre near Mohali in Chandigarh died reportedly due to beating at the centre. SHARAN and LCHAU had written to the ministries of health and social justice to clean up drug dependence facilities.
SHARAN asked the court to instruct the government to enact and implement rules for setting up, managing and monitoring of treatment facilities in accordance with evidence-based good practice and accumulated scientific knowledge; fundamental rights and freedoms including dignity, autonomy and bodily integrity, and consultation with community and civil society. It has also sought provision of pharmacotherapy including methadone and buprenorphine substitution for opiod dependence.
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