- Why in news
- On 4 July 2026 the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment said it is expanding drug treatment and rehabilitation under NAPDDR and Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan. It reported that people seeking treatment rose 294% between 2020 and 2025.
- What it is
- NAPDDR is the framework through which the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, the nodal ministry for drug demand reduction, works on prevention, awareness, capacity building, treatment, rehabilitation and social reintegration. Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan, launched in 2020, adds a mass-movement layer on top of it. It works through awareness drives, community mobilisation and volunteers called Nasha Mukti Mitra.
- Nodal ministry
- The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment is the nodal ministry for drug demand reduction and launched NAPDDR.
- NMBA launch
- Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan was launched in 2020 to strengthen NAPDDR efforts.
- 2019 national survey
- The Ministry's first nationwide survey on the Magnitude of Substance Use in India was held in 2019. It found over 7 crore people affected by substance use disorder, including about 1.2 crore children and 58 lakh women.
- Helpline and app
- The toll-free de-addiction helpline 14446 has received 4.69 lakh calls. NMBA App 2.0 lets States, Districts and other stakeholders upload field activity data with real-time visibility.
Don’t confuse with Demand reduction vs supply reduction: NAPDDR, under the Social Justice Ministry, deals with demand reduction: prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. Supply reduction, meaning enforcement against trafficking, is handled by agencies such as the Narcotics Control Bureau under the Home Ministry.
Schemes: 52 Prelims questions since 2013, 10 in Prelims 2026 alone. They test features, the period and who funds it. In Mains, 33 news-triggered questions, mostly GS3.
Why it matters
- Treats drug use as a public health and social problem, not only a law-and-order one.
- Combines treatment, rehabilitation and reintegration with community awareness, which supports a whole-of-society response.
Problems
- Stigma and limited access keep many users away from treatment; 768 centres are few for over 7 crore affected people.
- Coordination across Centre, States, line ministries and civil society is hard to sustain, and data rests on a survey from 2019.
Way forward
- Expand and monitor treatment and rehabilitation capacity, especially in high-burden districts.
- Run a fresh national survey and use real-time app data to target interventions.
Put in your answer
2019 Magnitude of Substance Use survey: Over 7 crore people were affected by substance use disorder, including about 1.2 crore children and 58 lakh women.
Rise in treatment seekers: People seeking treatment rose 294%, from 2.08 lakh in 2020 to over 8.20 lakh in 2025, which the Ministry reads as falling stigma.
- 2018Mains GS3 · Q20Linkages of drug trafficking with illicit activities and counter-measures needed
- 2024Mains GS3 · Q9How narco-terrorism threatens the country and measures to counter it
UPSC’s own questions that come close to this issue, from our Prelims and Mains banks.
No practice question for this one; the card may still help an answer. Why: Lasting scheme topic, but the release is a statement with little new; similar drug-free items are already on file, so a question is unlikely.
Worth revising until Prelims 2028: most news questions come within two years of the event.