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Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan has reached and sensitised more than 30.52 crore people nationally, including over 11.87 crore youth and 8.45 crore women.
The campaign was launched on 15 August 2020 in 272 identified vulnerable districts and has been extended to all districts of the country since August 2023.
Over 28.61 lakh activities have been conducted in educational institutions and more than 28.29 lakh persons treated and rehabilitated across the country.
NAPDDR-supported facilities nationally comprise 344 Integrated Rehabilitation Centres for Addicts, 145 District De-Addiction Centres, 155 Addiction Treatment Facilities, 76 Outreach and Drop In Centres and 45 Community based Peer Led Intervention programmes.
In Jammu and Kashmir, persons treated in supported centres rose from 5,382 in 2021-22 to 46,491 in 2025-26, and the campaign has sensitised over 1.20 crore people with 8,565 Nasha Mukt Mitrs enrolled.
Build public awareness against substance use, particularly in higher educational institutions, university campuses and schools
Key: Launched on 15 August 2020 covering 272 identified vulnerable districts, and extended to all districts of the country from August 2023. It has sensitised more than 30.52 crore people including 11.87 crore youth and 8.45 crore women, and enrols volunteers as Nasha Mukt Mitrs.
Fund preventive education, awareness generation, capacity building and treatment infrastructure for substance use
Key: The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment provides financial assistance to State Governments and UT Administrations for demand reduction programmes, to NGOs and voluntary organisations for running IRCAs, CPLIs, ODICs and DDACs, and to government hospitals for establishing Addiction Treatment Facilities.
Provide in-patient treatment and reintegration support
Key: Offers counselling, detoxification and de-addiction, after-care and reintegration into the social mainstream; 344 operate nationally.
Reach people who will not present at a hospital, and reach children before dependence sets in
Key: ODICs provide screening, assessment, counselling, referral and linkage to treatment and rehabilitation — 76 operate nationally. CPLI programmes focus specifically on children below 18 years, using peer leadership; 45 operate nationally.
Provide prevalence estimates on which the programme's targeting rests
Key: Conducted in 2018 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment through the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre at AIIMS, covering the 10-75 age group; it is the source of the district vulnerability identification behind NMBA's original 272-district design.
Supply reduction means interdiction — policing cultivation, manufacture and trafficking — and in India runs through the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, the Narcotics Control Bureau and enforcement agencies such as the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence. Demand reduction means preventing people from starting and helping those who have started to stop, which is what the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction funds and what Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan campaigns for. Harm reduction means limiting the damage to those who continue to use — clean needles, opioid substitution therapy — and sits largely in the health system. The distinction matters for reading the numbers in this reply: 30.52 crore people sensitised is a demand-reduction output, not a measure of consumption falling, and the sharp rise in persons treated in Jammu and Kashmir from 5,382 to 46,491 over five years is ambiguous on its face — it reflects treatment capacity and help-seeking rising at least as much as it reflects the underlying burden. The tiered facility design answers a different question, of who will actually come forward: an ODIC catches those who would never enter a hospital, a CPLI programme reaches children below 18 through peers, and an IRCA admits those needing in-patient detoxification.
Simple Analogy: Policing the smugglers, persuading people not to buy, and keeping those who do buy alive are three different jobs — and counting how many were persuaded says nothing about how many stopped.
The demand-reduction work funded here operates alongside the supply-side framework of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and the Narcotics Control Bureau — two halves of one policy.
The 2018 survey's finding of 4.91% opioid prevalence in Jammu and Kashmir explains why treatment infrastructure there expanded fastest, and connects substance use policy to border and trafficking questions.
With over 28.61 lakh activities in educational institutions, NMBA overlaps with the youth policy platforms — MY Bharat volunteers and NCC cadets are among the channels through which such campaigns reach students.
Tele-MANAS and de-addiction counselling address adjacent problems through separate helplines — 14416 and 14446 respectively — reflecting how far substance use and mental health remain administratively distinct.
GS Paper 2 > Social Justice: Issues Relating to Vulnerable Sections; Government Policies and Interventions
General Awareness > Government Schemes
General Awareness > Current Affairs
Substance abuse programmes appear periodically in Prelims and regularly in GS2 answers on vulnerable sections
Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan, the awareness campaign launched on 15 August 2020 and extended to all districts from August 2023.
National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction, the funding framework for prevention, treatment and rehabilitation.
Integrated Rehabilitation Centre for Addicts, providing in-patient counselling, detoxification, after-care and reintegration; 344 nationally.
Community based Peer Led Intervention, focused on children below 18 years; 45 programmes nationally.
Outreach and Drop In Centre, providing screening, assessment, counselling and referral; 76 nationally.
A volunteer enrolled in the campaign; 8,565 have joined in Jammu and Kashmir.