Mental health and addiction

Mental health care, drug abuse and the helplines, plans and laws that respond to them.

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StandardPrelims and Mains2 Jul 2026

India's only national survey of substance use, by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in 2019, found about 16 crore people who drink alcohol, of whom 5.7 crore are dependent; 3.1 crore who use cannabis; 2.26 crore who use opioids, 2.8 crore counted as dependent on them, with about 28 lakh needing urgent treatment; and 1.18 crore who use sedatives. More than 7 crore people have a substance use disorder, nearly 1.2 crore of them children and 58 lakh women.
Two ministries divide the field. The Home Ministry's Narcotics Control Bureau works on supply under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985; the Social Justice Ministry works on demand through the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction and its treatment centres.
MANAS, the Madak Padarth Nishedh Asoochna Kendra, is the Narcotics Control Bureau's national helpline, 1933, launched on 18 July 2024: a citizen can report trafficking, peddling or illegal cultivation without giving a name, through the number, a portal, email or the UMANG app; each report becomes a digital ticket shared with the Bureau's 30 zonal units and the 36 State and Union Territory anti narcotics task forces, and a caller who needs counselling is passed to the Social Justice Ministry's helpline, 14446.

On 2 July 2026 the Press Information Bureau published a factsheet on MANAS as it neared two years, and on 4 July the Social Justice Minister restated the 2019 figures while calling for a whole of society approach.
On 7 July the heads of the BRICS countries' anti drug agencies, meeting under India's chairship, adopted the Guwahati Declaration on joint action against trafficking.
In Parliament the Ministry gave the demand side's count: the Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan, begun on 15 August 2020 in 272 vulnerable districts and extended to every district in August 2023, has reached more than 29 crore people through 1.17 lakh registered Nasha Mukti Mitras; the 14446 helpline has taken more than 4.6 lakh calls; and the treatment network under the Action Plan stands at 344 Integrated Rehabilitation Centres for Addicts, 145 District De-addiction Centres, 155 Addiction Treatment Facilities in hospitals, 76 Outreach and Drop In Centres and 45 Community based Peer led Intervention centres for children and youth.

The treatment network is small against the need: a few hundred centres for 2.8 crore people dependent on opioids alone, which is why the Action Plan leans on awareness and the helpline rather than beds.
Supply and demand are run from different ministries with different measures, seizures on one side and people reached on the other; MANAS is the first instrument that routes a citizen from one to the other in a single call.
Addiction is a mental illness under the Mental Healthcare Act, 2017, whose definition includes conditions associated with the abuse of alcohol and drugs, and a crime under the 1985 Act for the user who possesses; the balance between the two is the policy question behind every helpline.

National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (Social Justice Ministry)

Funds the Integrated Rehabilitation Centres for Addicts, District De-addiction Centres, Outreach and Drop In Centres, Community based Peer led Intervention centres and the Addiction Treatment Facilities run with the All India Institute of Medical Sciences' National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre in government hospitals
The counts above are as given to the Rajya Sabha in August 2026.

Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan (15 August 2020)

The awareness campaign, from 272 districts to all; e-pledges, a mobile application for volunteers, and outreach through schools and universities.

MANAS, helpline 1933 (18 July 2024, Narcotics Control Bureau) and the de-addiction helpline 14446 (Social Justice Ministry): the two numbers a question can ask.

Prelims: MANAS is the Narcotics Control Bureau's helpline 1933, launched 18 July 2024; 14446 is the de-addiction helpline; the 2019 survey's figures; Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan from 15 August 2020 in 272 districts; the Guwahati Declaration of 7 July 2026 under BRICS.
Mains: whether a demand reduction plan built on awareness can meet a treatment need measured in crores, and how the supply and demand sides should be joined.

Sources

Settled facts (dates of Acts, constitutional provisions, standing definitions) are from standard references.