GALLERY: Raising the status of women who use drugs in India

Introducing WINGS, an Alliance India programme which has set out to prove and document that women who use drugs do exist in India, and that tailored harm reduction services can have a huge impact on their lives.

WINGS stands for Women Initiating New Goals for Safety and its mission is to reduce violence and HIV among women who use drugs in India.

It believes in harm reduction, which is a practical and non-judgemental approach designed to keep people safer while they are using drugs.

The problem is that you need official national data to prove to the government that this is an area that needs funding, but you need funding to find the data.

“These women have been ignored for long enough,” Pemu Bhutia, WINGS project manager

This means slowly raising the status of women who use drugs, woman by woman, household by household, community by community.