By Dr. Gyan Pathak
To reduce consumption of liquor and abuse of drugs, India had launched Nasha Mukta Bharat Abhiyaan six years ago on August 15, 2020. Government of India described its journey from awareness to a People’s Movement. However, in contrast, consumption of liquor and illicit drugs sharply rose. Now, India is the fastest growing major liquor market in the world, chiefly driven by government policies, and illegal opioid use has reached a level that is three times the global average. Alcohol consumption and substance abuse has become a major crisis, despite government’s Nahas Mukta Bharat Abhiyaan.
Poll bound Punjab has become the first state in the country to have substance abuse crisis as election issue. Official estimates and parliamentary reports indicate that over 6 lakh minors aged 10–17 and more than 63 lakh adults are affected by substance use disorders in the state. Opioids (particularly heroin, locally known as chitta), raw opium, poppy husk, and pharmaceutical drugs are the most frequently abused substances. Injecting drug use (IDU) is also a major concern. Union Minister of Home Amit Shah has made drug menace a central political issue for BJP in the state targeting the ruling AAP, as if the Centre had no responsibility to check the menace. Union government is accountable at least for cross border smuggling of drugs into Indian territory.
All the states in India have been suffering from higher level of alcohol consumption every year and drug abuse has also been rising sharply. Centre’s Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyan has obviously little effect because of the Centre’s and State Governments’ policy failures and inactions on respective fronts. Even though Centre is trying to appear as has been working for it.
Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan was initially launched across 272 districts. As of 10 November 2026, the campaign reached over 35.84 crore people, Centre has said, adding that this footprint included more than 14.33 crore youth and 11.32 crore women. Support services under the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR) have grown rapidly. Persons seeking treatment and counselling rose from 2.08 lakh in 2020-21 to over 9.11 lakh in 2025-26. As of 10 November 2026, more than 2 lakh citizens have enrolled as Nasha Mukti Mitr. Centre clearly tried to impress people how it is working to free India from addiction.
Centre patted its own back even in case of Punjab. It said, “When the campaign marked five years at Amritsar on 18 November 2025, more than 6 crore people had joined its anniversary events at over 2.10 lakh locations, and it had reached 23.74 crore people.” Centre celebrated its Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan at Amritsar, but one year later we see the miserable condition of Punjab.
The reality is that alcohol and drug consumption in India saw a massive surge during the Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan period between 2020 and 2026, driven by premiumization, a massive wave of young consumers entering in the habit of consumption of alcohol and abuse of drugs.
In the year 2020, total volume of legal alcohol entering the market stood at approximately 5 billion litres, hit by a temporary per-capita dip to 4.1 litres due to pandemic lockdowns. By 2024 volumes escalated steadily to an estimated 6.21 billion litres as urban retail expanded. In 2025, the market experienced massive premiumization; Indian consumers spent over $60 billion on alcohol. Overall volume crossed 7.6 billion litres (roughly 840 million cases). In 2026, India became the world’s fastest-growing major liquor market, posting a 10% volume jump in the first half of 2026 alone—even as the US and China markets shrank.
The illegal alcohol market in India is estimated to be worth approximately ₹60,000 crore ($7.2 billion) making it one of the largest shadow alcohol economies in the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that unrecorded, illicit, or home-brewed liquor accounts for nearly 50% of all alcohol consumed across the country.
The surge in alcohol consumption is heavily fuelled by younger generation. In 2026, as the data from the IWSR Bevtrac Survey shows, the proportion of Gen Z individuals (ages 21-28 years) who drink rose to 80 per cent from 60 per cent in 2023.
While annual volume metrics for illegal narcotics are harder to quantify due to their illicit nature, the underlying user base in India remains vast. Throughout the 2020–2026 period, the Government of India and the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment have consistently relied on the macro-baselines established in 2018 by the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC) at AIIMS, but the scenario has far worsened.
The 2018 data showed 16 crore alcohol users, 3.1 crore cannabis users, 2.26 crore opioids users and 1.18 crore sedative users in India. However, Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime report of 2025 has said that Illicit and pharmaceutical opioid use in India is estimated to be roughly three times the global average, affecting about 7% of the population (roughly 102 million people).
As for sharp increase in alcohol use, India’s alcohol policy environment is widely viewed as a major driver in increasing consumption level every year. Retail access are being expanded, sale hours are liberalised, and promoting premiumization. To increase tax revenue, States are doing everything to push the sales up. It is done simultaneously with Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan (addition free India campaign). Official machinery is inherently structured to favour market growth.
India needs more than mere campaigns and slogans for addiction free India. It needs earnest action on the part of the Centre to stop cross border smuggling and diversion of drugs from medicine sellers and pharmaceutical companies. States also need to abandon the policy that pushes up the alcohol market growth. (IPA Service)
