‘My wife doesn’t know about my addiction. But I must return to her clean’

Rohit (name changed) counts the days quietly. It has been three since he checked into a drug de-addiction centre in Delhi, supported under a scheme of the ministry of social justice and empowerment.He is from Saket, two years into marriage, and the father of a daughter who is just one. Until recently, he worked as a delivery partner for a well-known food outlet, spending most of his day on the road. Home was where his wife, child and parents waited for him, though his priorities lay elsewhere.“I used to hang out with friends who were into heroin,” Rohit says. “I tried it once, and then I was hooked on it for eight years.”

What began casually soon turned into a routine: He needed around a gram a day. “My addiction was out of control,” he says. His parents knew all about it, he says, but could do little.Marriage couldn’t rid him of the scourge; it remained hidden. “To this day, my wife does not know about it,” Rohit says.Something in him started changing once his daughter was born. His wife left for her village with their child, and the house felt emptier than usual.

Sinking in silence, Rohit decided to seek help. “My daughter is just one. I need to secure her future,” Rohit says. “I can’t keep spending everything on my addiction.”Now, in the first stage of detoxification, his struggle is as much physical as it is mental. “The first day, my whole body was aching,” he says. “There’s this urge, like you just need something to feel normal. Nausea is common.”Rohit pauses, then adds, firmly, “But this time, I am sure.” He has three months, he says, before his wife and daughter return. “I need to return to them clean.”