Nadda Launches De-addiction Training for 10,000 Providers

Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Shri J.P. Nadda launched the Capacity Building Training Programme for Medical and Allied Healthcare Professionals engaged in drug de-addiction services on 26 October 2026. The launch took place in hybrid mode at Kartavya Bhawan-1, New Delhi, with officers of the Ministries of Health and Family Welfare, Social Justice and Empowerment, and Home Affairs present. The programme is meant to strengthen the hands of healthcare staff who prevent, identify, assess, treat and manage substance use disorders.

The target and the mandate

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has been asked to build the capacity of 10,000 service providers by March 2029. The mandate comes from the Vision Document on Narcotic Control: 2026-2029, unveiled in June 2026 by Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Shri Amit Shah, which sets out how the entire drug trade ecosystem is to be tackled over three years. The training is phased: 2,000 providers in the current financial year, 3,000 in 2027-28 and 5,000 in 2028-29. Shri Nadda said a Nasha Mukt Bharat by 2029 needs a whole-of-government approach, since departments working in silos had left gaps in coordination and service delivery.

Who will run the training

Six central institutions under the Drug De-addiction Programme (DDAP) will conduct it: the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre (NDDTC), AIIMS New Delhi, located at Ghaziabad; NIMHANS, Bengaluru; PGIMER, Chandigarh; the Central Institute of Psychiatry, Ranchi; Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi; and AIIMS Bhubaneswar. NDDTC, AIIMS will coordinate the whole initiative.

How the course is built

A blended design is being used. Online live training for doctors and medical officers runs as weekly sessions over a 12-week period, mixing lectures with clinical case discussions; all six institutions hold these at the same time, with a combined capacity of 300 participants per week. In-person training is given as five-day programmes on a common curriculum. Self-paced modules cover doctors through the NDDTC's NAAT course, counsellors and psychologists through NIMHANS e-learning, and nurses, Community Health Officers and Auxiliary Nurse Midwives through an NDDTC course. The Addiction Rx application built by NIMHANS supports prescribing. The curriculum covers alcohol, cannabis, opioids, sleeping tablets and inhalants, and the treatment of women and adolescents.

Reach and the physician's manual

States nominate candidates through the National Health Mission, and central services including the Armed Forces, Central Armed Police Forces and Railways also send staff. More than 800 nominations have already come in, and about 150 personnel from de-addiction centres funded by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment are expected at offline training over the next two months. At the event the Minister also released the second edition of Substance Use Disorder: Manual for Physicians (Management of Addictive Disorders), first published in 2005 and now heavily revised. Dr. Anju Dhawan of NDDTC, AIIMS presented the implementation plan, and Health Secretary Smt. Punya Salila Srivastava also spoke.