Women in some areas of central Uruzgan province in Afganistan still feed their children opium to make them sleep, causing the infants serious damage, including death.

Uruzgan is one of the provinces where poppy is widely cultivated. However, the illegal crop has also helped improve the economic situation of the people. Some families administer the drug to their children too.

The Counter-narcotics Department has conducted some public awareness programmes as part of a campaign against poppy cultivation. But the drive has been unproductive, reports the Albawaba.

The latest campaign was launched at the Malalai High School in Tirinkot, the capital of the province, on Wednesday. The event was attended by women from the city and a number of districts.

Local officials requested women not to allow their men to grow poppies.

Counter-narcotics Director Abdul Zahir Salari said around 15,000 people were addicted to drugs in Uruzgan, including hundreds of women and children, due to poppy cultivation.

A number of females said some women worked side by side with their men to grow poppies. Some children, helping their parents in harvesting poppy latex, also become addicts.

Nasrin, a student of the Malalai High School, said the use of opium had become a tradition in the province and women even used it to silence children.

Marwa, a resident of Tirinkot, verified most women in the province gave their children opium in the winter. Some of the children who were given opium have died.

Dr Ziaur Rahman Niazi, Uruzgan Civil Hospital director said he receives five children who encounter health problems due to opium consumption each month.