BONGAIGAON, Aug 14 - In a bizarre case, a teenage boy has been confined in a metal cage with chains and lock around his neck, by his parents who had no other option, but to take this measure to keep their son away from substance abuse.
Initially Sadek Ali (14), son of Jaher Ali of Saljhar in Chirang district, was a regular school-goer. But gradually, his behaviour changed as he became an addict of �Dendrite� adhesive. Without the puff of the adhesive, he could not remain normal even for a day.
Sadek stole money from his father�s pocket to get the addictive substance. When he failed to manage money from home, he started stealing valuables from his neighbours to buy the adhesive.
Whenever Sadek was caught by the residents of his native village near the Chirang district headquarters Kajalgaon, his father had to pay the price for his guilty son in the form of paying fines to the society. A small trader, Jaher got fed up of paying fines to the society for his son�s offence and took his son to doctors for treatment, but this effort also went in vain.
Without finding any other alternative, Jaher then locked Sadek in a metal cage last year to rid his son from dendrite addiction. Sadek is taken out of the cage by the chain around his neck when he has to attend to nature�s call. Otherwise, he remains there throughout the day and night.
This torturous life of the teenager is a pointer to the fact that adequate measures for deaddiction or awareness regarding ill effects of drugs and other substance abuse have not reached the village level in the State.
