According to a lawyer of Punjab and Haryana High Court, as observed 47% of women get into drug trafficking after getting addicted to drugs and are unable to pay athe mount for the drugs. Women involved in drug trafficking usually also start taking drugs themselves. The most commonly used drugs among women include cocaine, sulpha, smack, opium, morphine and injecting drugs with syringe in their body, usually in arms. During a survey, it was found that female students living in hostels or working women staying in PG houses start taking drugs. According to information, 914 women have been arrested in three years allegedly running a drug smuggling network in Haryana.
According to collected data, two women were arrested for supplying ganja from Naraingarh police station area in Ambala district on 20 June 2024, in another case a woman was arrested by the police for drug trafficking from Shadipur village in Yamunanagar district. On 13 September 2024, the police caught three minor girls from Yamunanagar railway station on charges of drug trafficking. Such incidents recorded in the police records indicates that the trend of female drug smugglers is increasing in Haryana. About two years ago Ambala police busted a gang of smuggling and selling drugs all over in the state led by a woman when Haryana state police had demolished the godown with bulldozers in Deha Colony Ambala Cantt and seized huge quantities of drugs. Similarly, City police station Ambala also arrested several females while supplying consignments of drugs in bulk or door-to-door sale.
Information reveals, in the past three years, the Haryana police have arrested 914 women drug smugglers. This year, the police have arrested 20 women in Kurukshetra and 14 women in Hisar in the case of drug smuggling. 70 % of these women smugglers were found to have gotten into the drug smuggling after getting addicted to drugs themselves and meeting financial demand for the same . As seen the age of women caught in drug smuggling is between 25 to 60 years and most of these are women belonging to the families below poverty line. Nearly 30 % of the women are such people who become smugglers to meet the expenses of the family. According to Haryana Police data, from October 2022 to October 2024, 10,484 cases of drug trafficking were registered in various police stations in the state and 15,546 drug smugglers were arrested, of these, 914 were females.
The activities of women drug smugglers are more in the districts adjoining the borders, which include eight districts relatively having more activities, which include Sirsa, Fatehabad, Kurukshetra, Ambala, Yamunanagar, Hisar, Faridabad and Gurugram which are connected to Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. In the past three years, FIRs and arrests of drug smugglers have been much more as compared to other districts in Haryana state. The previous scenario reveals that in 2022, the maximum number of drug smugglers were arrested in Sirsa (832), Fatehabad (459), Faridabad (440) and Kurukshetra (411) among these, 6 % were women smugglers. In 2023, the maximum number of drug smugglers were arrested in Sirsa (843), Faridabad (450), Kurukshetra (448), Fatehabad (383), Gurugram (358) and Yamunanagar (341) of these, 4% were women smugglers. In 2024, 387 smugglers were arrested in Faridabad, 364 in Sirsa, 328 in Kurukshetra, 322 in Gurugram, 300 in Yamunanagar, 291 in Dabwali and 280 in Fatehabad of these 7% were women drug smugglers. The number of women smuggling drugs is increasing due to less suspicion from the police.
According to a lawyer who usually fights cases registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, the police are less suspicious of women and many times women escape easily due to the absence of women police personnel and no search is conducted. It has been seen, women travel in public transport for smuggling. As told by the in-charge of a Women Police Station, women smugglers smuggle drugs by hiding them in their private parts or undergarments so that they are not easily caught. In many such cases, women police recovered drugs during searches. They never use private vehicles for smuggling, mostly travel in auto, taxi or bus. In case of a suspect being caught, they throw the drugs inside the vehicle.
