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The Prime Minister launched the 'Nasha Mukt Yuva for Viksit Bharat Sankalp Abhiyan' on 2 August 2026 by video conference, with more than one crore young people joining from over 28,000 locations.
The campaign runs on a 100-Week Action Plan: every Sunday for 100 weeks carries activities around art, culture, sports, meditation, spirituality and service, taking the de-addiction message to new participants.
It began as a pilot in Kashi (Varanasi) in 2025 and became a national project through the Kashi Declaration, drawn up with more than 125 spiritual organisations along with social organisations and NGOs.
The campaign is anchored in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and delivered through MY Bharat, which connects over 2.3 crore youth, along with NSS volunteers and educational institutions.
The Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports and Labour and Employment, Dr Mansukh Mandaviya, the Minister of State Smt Raksha Nikhil Khadse, 26 Governors and the Chief Ministers of 11 States joined the launch.
Make freedom from substance abuse a youth-led mass movement in the run-up to Viksit Bharat 2047, by combining pledges, campus activity and community outreach
Key: A 100-Week Action Plan with weekly Sunday activities; run by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports through MY Bharat and NSS; grew out of a Kashi pilot and the Kashi Declaration signed with over 125 spiritual organisations
Create mass awareness against substance use through youth, women, educational institutions and the community
Key: Run by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment; began in 272 districts identified as most vulnerable using the national survey and Narcotics Control Bureau inputs, and was extended to all districts of the country on 15 August 2023
Reduce the adverse consequences of drug abuse through a multi-pronged strategy resting on prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, capacity building and enforcement
Key: A centrally sponsored umbrella scheme of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, effective from 1 April 2018; funds Integrated Rehabilitation Centres for Addicts, Community-based Peer Led Interventions, Outreach and Drop-In Centres, District De-addiction Centres and Addiction Treatment Facilities in government hospitals
A technology-driven platform giving young people equitable access to volunteering, leadership, mentorship and national service opportunities
Key: An autonomous body under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, approved by the Cabinet on 11 October 2023 and launched on National Unity Day at Kartavya Path; primary age group 15-29 years, with 10-19 years for specific components
'Education through Service' - developing the personality and character of student youth through voluntary community service
Key: Launched in Mahatma Gandhi's birth centenary year under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, with the motto 'Not Me But You'; NSS volunteers are a delivery channel for the new campaign
India's principal anti-narcotics law, in force from 14 November 1985. It prohibits the production, manufacture, possession, sale, transport and consumption of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances except for medical and scientific purposes, and expressly provided for a central authority to exercise the Centre's powers under the Act
A Directive Principle of State Policy that makes raising nutrition levels, the standard of living and public health primary duties of the State, and in particular requires the State to endeavour to bring about prohibition of the consumption of intoxicating drinks and of drugs injurious to health, except for medicinal purposes. Like all DPSPs it is not enforceable by any court
Provides for preventive detention of persons involved in illicit trafficking, complementing the punitive framework of the NDPS Act
The central law-enforcement and coordination agency for drug control, constituted on 17 March 1986 under the provision made in the NDPS Act, 1985. Its vulnerability data helped identify the 272 districts where Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan began
Nodal ministry for drug demand reduction - it runs NAPDDR and the Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan, and commissioned the national survey on substance use
Anchors the new Nasha Mukt Yuva campaign and owns the delivery channels - MY Bharat and the National Service Scheme
Prepared the 2019 report 'Magnitude of Substance Use in India' for the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment - the survey that supplies India's baseline numbers on substance use
| Aspect | Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan (2020) | Nasha Mukt Yuva for Viksit Bharat Sankalp Abhiyan (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Nodal ministry | Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment | Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports |
| Launch date | 15 August 2020 | 2 August 2026 |
| Coverage at launch | 272 districts identified as most vulnerable; all districts from 15 August 2023 | Over one crore youth from more than 28,000 locations, nationwide from day one |
| Delivery channel | District administrations, NGOs and community volunteers | MY Bharat volunteers, NSS units, schools, colleges and universities |
| Structure | Continuing awareness campaign with treatment and rehabilitation support under NAPDDR | A time-bound 100-Week Action Plan with weekly Sunday activities, framed by the Kashi Declaration |
The campaign's framing - youth as the 'Amrit Peedhi' who will carry India to 2047 - is the demographic dividend argument. Substance abuse is presented as the loss of that dividend at the individual level
Article 47 is unenforceable in court, but NDPS enforcement, NAPDDR funding and campaigns like this one are how a Directive Principle actually becomes state action - a standard question on the DPSP-Fundamental Rights distinction
The government explicitly places this campaign alongside Swachh Bharat and Fit India as a people's-participation movement rather than a benefit-transfer scheme - a recurring theme in governance questions
The launch address linked drug inflows to hostile actors financing themselves and targeting Indian youth, tying demand reduction to the internal-security dimension of drug trafficking
GS Paper 2 > Governance > Government Policies and Interventions for Vulnerable Sections
General Awareness > Government Schemes and Current Affairs
General Awareness > National Campaigns and Schemes
Drug abuse policy and youth-focused campaigns recur in UPSC GS Paper 2 and in SSC general awareness sections
The roadmap drawn up with more than 125 spiritual organisations, social organisations and NGOs from the Varanasi pilot, which turned the de-addiction effort into a national campaign
Autonomous body under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports launched on 31 October 2023, connecting youth aged 15-29 to volunteering and national service opportunities
National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction, 2018-2025 - a centrally sponsored umbrella scheme of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment resting on prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, capacity building and enforcement
Integrated Rehabilitation Centre for Addicts - NGO-run de-addiction centres funded under NAPDDR
The generation of Indians the government identifies as carrying the country to its Viksit Bharat 2047 goal