Srinagar, April 29 -- A pale spring sun hung above Srinagar one recent morning as a father waited outside a de-addiction center, clutching a packet of walnuts in one hand and his son's medical papers in the other.

Nurses moved through narrow corridors lined with young men wrapped in blankets. Some stared blankly at television screens mounted on peeling walls, others slept through withdrawal.

One teenager sat beside his mother and rubbed his arms to calm the tremors.

Doctors at the center spoke in low voices about the age of their newest patients: fourteen, fifteen, sixteen.

Families once reluctantly talked about addiction behind closed doors. Entire neighbourhoods now speak about it openly because nearly every mohalla knows someone tr...