Prashant Rupera & Tushar Tere
VADODARA/AHMEDABAD: The lure of a rave party was irresistible for Neelam Shah (name changed), a schoolgirl from Vadodara. It was a ‘cool’ thing to do, she was told by her friends. But once there, she got high on drugs and
liquor and ended up having sex with a friend. When the high wore off, she went into a depression.
Psychiatrists have sounded an alarm over increasing number of minor girls landing up at rave parties and indulging in sex and drugs even before they step out of school.
Psychiatrist Yogesh Patel, who runs a de-addiction centre in Vadodara, says: “In the past fortnight, I have come across three cases from Vadodara and one from Ahmedabad of minor girls suddenly being exposed to drugs and sexual abuse at rave parties.”
The girls have told him the parties are organised by adults from neo-rich families. They were lured by promises of careers in modelling and Bollywood by men claiming to have contacts in the glamour industry. Patel has also alerted Vadodara police commissioner Rakesh Asthana about the new trend. “It is a sensitive matter. We are looking for more details,” Asthana told TOI.
In the last case, the girl’s music teacher took her to a private party near Umeta Bridge where she was exposed to certain chemicals.
TOI spoke to a 25-year-old girl in Vadodara who comes to Ahmedabad to attend raves. On condition of anonymity, she said: “Schoolgirls turn up at raves out of curiosity and often get hooked on. For any first-timer, the free-flowing drugs and liquor can be a shocker. Many of them end up in bed after a high.”
“I had treated a schoolgirl who attended a rave party without informing her parents. After ending up in bed with a friend, she was guilty and depressed and then came to me,” says psychiatrist Dr Sandeep Shah.
“I’ve treated six schoolchildren, four of them girls, hooked to deadly drugs after going to a rave party. The girls took ‘Ecstasy’ tablets, after which they started physical relations with boys,” says Ahmedabad-based doctor Vishwamohan Thakur, who runs a private de-addiction centre.
Inputs by Ankur Jain
(c) 2008 The Times of India. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
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