Glue Sniffing Among Street Children inGaushala and Sundhara Area of Kathmandu Valley

Abstract

Street children are a term used to refer to children who live on the streets of a city. They are basically deprived of family care and protection. The easy access and availability of drugs has created an extremely conducive social environment for people to start taking such substances It is believed that solvents produce hallucinations by disrupting the cell membrane of brain cells, thus altering the way the cells conduct elect impulses. The current prevalence of gluesniffing is78.7% among street children in the Kathmandu Valley. We conducted descriptive cross-sectional study to assess the situation of glue sniffing among street children in Gaushala and Sundhara area of Kathmandu valley. The problem of availability of food and the control over them and the lack of education among street children pushes them for glue sniffing. Majority of the respondents encountered problems such as Headache, Nausea and Stomach- ache while sniffing glue. They also faced other problems such as fighting with their friends and also develop self destructive nature. At last, we concluded that the problem of glue sniffing is getting more serious in our society and this problem has to be addressed urgently if we want to see a safe environment for the future of the nation.