National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR)

Drug abuse is a huge problem in India. It has serious consequences both at the individual as well as at a societal level. The government of India, in consultation with stakeholders, is running several programmes for deaddiction and rehabilitation. In this article, you can read all about the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction or NAPDDR with a UPSC perspective. It will also benefit aspirants who wish to take various government exams.

NAPDDR:- Download PDF Here

What is NAPDDR?

NAPDDR was formulated and is being implemented by the GOI’s Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment for the time frame 2018 – 25.

• Using a multi-pronged strategy, the action plan aims at reducing the adverse effects of drug abuse in the country.
• Some of the activities included under this are awareness generation programmes in colleges and schools, community-based peer-led interactions & intervention programmes for vulnerable adolescents and youth, workshops and seminars involving parents, treatment facilities and capacity building of service providers.
• It also includes focused intervention programmes in vulnerable districts to reduce the demand for addictive substances and promoting collective initiatives and self-help endeavour among individuals and groups vulnerable to addiction or found at risk.

NAPDDR Objectives

The objectives of NAPDDR are as follows:

1. Create awareness and educate people about the ill-effects of drugs, and bring down the discrimination and stigmatisation of addicts to rehabilitate them back to society.
2. Enable research, documentation, training, innovation and gathering of relevant data to bolster the above-mentioned objectives.
3. Develop human resources and build capacity for working towards these objectives.
4. Provide community-based services for the identification, motivation, counselling, de-addiction, aftercare and rehabilitation for Whole Person Recovery (WPR) of addicts.
5. Frame and execute comprehensive guidelines, programmes & schemes using a multi-agency approach for drug demand reduction.
6. Address all forms of drug abuse by undertaking drug demand reduction efforts.
7. Alleviate the consequences of drug dependence amongst individuals, family and society at large.

Background: Drug Abuse in India

India is located between the Golden Triangle and the Golden Crescent, the two largest opium-producing regions in the world. This makes the country extremely vulnerable to narcotics trafficking. India is in the transit route between these regions and has also turned into a major consumer base, particularly the state of Punjab, which shares a border with Pakistan.

About 60 lakh people in India are reported to be in need of intervention owing to opioid consumption. The alarming thing is that even school children exhibit addiction to narcotics and other substances such as alcohol.

The most commonly abused substances are heroin, ganja, hashish, opium, and also pharmaceutical drugs such as ‘buprenorphine’, codeine-based cough syrups and painkillers like ‘proxivon’.

Drug abuse is a serious socio-economic problem affecting many people including young people in the country. It affects a wide range of areas such as law and order, health, society, economic potential, etc. and at the individual level, it adversely affects relationships, family life, emotional well-being, etc. Read more about drug abuse in India in the link.

India is a signatory of the following international treaties and conventions to combat the menace of Drug Abuse:

1. United Nations (UN) Convention on Narcotic Drugs (1961)
2. United Nations (UN) Convention on Psychotropic Substances (1971).
3. United Nations (UN) Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (1988)
4. Transnational Convention Crime (2000)

Get a list of important United Nations conventions for UPSC in the link.

The government passed the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act to combat the menace of drugs and substance abuse. This Act, passed in 1985, makes the production/manufacturing/cultivation, possession, sale, purchasing, transport, storage, and/or consumption of any narcotic drug or psychotropic substance a criminal offence.

Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan

This programme was launched in 272 of the most affected districts in the country with respect to the drug problem. The selected districts were identified based on information from the Narcotics  Control Bureau (NCB) and various surveys conducted by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

The Abhiyan ran from August 2020 to March 2021.

The interventions are similar to those under the NAPDDR.