Parliamentary and J&K Assembly replies uncover critical service deficits in the fight against substance abuse in Jammu & Kashmir’s most vulnerable districts
By Dr Sami Ullah
In continuation to the earlier article titled ‘Crisis of De-Addiction in Absence of Rehabilitation in Jammu & Kashmir’, the present piece revisits and deepens the conversation by foregrounding the recent Parliamentary reply of the hon’ble Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment (MoSJ&E), Government of India, and the Assembly reply of MoSW&H&ME J&K, respectively concerning the de-addiction centres financially supported under the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR) and functional status as on date of such centres.
Notably, through a series of Expressions of Interest (EOI), the central Ministry had invited eligible non-governmental organisations (NGOs), voluntary organisations (VOs), and start-ups to establish District De-Addiction Centres (DDACs) across twelve identified Gap Districts of Jammu and Kashmir—namely, Anantnag, Baramulla, Budgam, Doda, Ganderbal, Kathua, Kishtwar, Poonch, Ramban, Reasi, Shopian, and Udhampur. These districts were recognised for their acute service deficits and escalating substance abuse trends, warranting immediate infrastructural and institutional interventions.
Despite the alarming scale of the crisis and extensive documentation of its social and medical dimensions, the government’s official record reflects a troubling unevenness. The reply of the hon’ble Minister of Social Justice & Empowerment (MoSJ&E) in the Rajya Sabha reveals that while 352 Integrated Rehabilitation Centres for Addicts (IRCAs), 46 Community-based Peer Led Interventions (CPLIs), 75 Outreach and Drop-in Centres (ODICs), 138 District De-Addiction Centres (DDACs), and 148 Addiction Treatment Facilities (ATFs) are financially supported nationwide, Jammu & Kashmir features only a limited number of functional DDACs—three in Jammu, two in Srinagar, and one each in Bandipora, Budgam, Kulgam, Kupwara, Pulwama, Rajouri, and Samba. Alarmingly, no ATF across the Union Territory is reported to be receiving central operational assistance.
Equally concerning is the fact that, among the designated Gap Districts, only Budgam appears to have received sanction under the NAPDDR framework, while several other priority districts remain without operational facilities despite formal proposals from eligible organisations. This persistent disjuncture between policy intent and field implementation raises an urgent moral, administrative, and humanitarian question: what becomes of the victims of addiction in the remaining eleven Gap Districts—such as Poonch, Shopian, Udhampur, Baramulla, Anantnag, and Ganderbal—where no functional DDAC yet exists?
Compounding the concern, the recent statements issued by the Social Welfare and Health Minister of the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir have alternately asserted that de-addiction facilities are ‘functional,’ thereby generating conflicting public narratives that erode institutional trust and obscure genuine service deficits. Field seizure data and recurrent media reports documenting narcotic interceptions in precisely those districts lacking operational DDACs point to a substantial and unmet treatment need—a latent crisis demanding immediate, and in no way a deferred, policy response.
Furthermore, the gap between policy promises and on-ground realities warrants urgent attention. While private rehabilitation centres exist, many impose prohibitive charges that effectively exclude economically weaker families. This stark contradiction undermines the core rationale of the government-supported DDACs contained under the NAPDDR scheme of the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, which envisions affordable, community-based, and comprehensive rehabilitation facilities accessible to all social strata.
In view of these discrepancies, this article serves as an open appeal to the hon’ble MoSJ&E, GoI, the hon’ble minister of Social Welfare, Health, and Education of J&K, as well as to District Administrations and civil society partners, to introspect the matter enabling urgent expedite of the release of Grant-in-Aid funds, besides fast-tracking the operationalization of all twelve identified DDACs, and while initiating interim outreach mechanisms such as mobile de-addiction units, telemedicine services, and subsidized treatment pathways until full-scale centres become functional. The people of these gap districts cannot afford to wait while policy remains confined to paper and lives continue to be lost to addiction and neglect.
While this article is elaborated, it is essential to understand that addiction has been recognised as a neurobiological disorder, making it fall squarely within the ambit of mental health law, thereby conferring upon every victim a fundamental right to treatment and rehabilitation. This right finds its practical expression through the proper functioning of DDACs under the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR). Accordingly, a comprehensive and transparent mapping of all de-addiction and rehabilitation facilities operating across Jammu & Kashmir is urgently warranted to align governance with ground realities and public health ethics.
In the backdrop of the above, this article stands as both an urgent reflection and an open letter on the unfinished promise of the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR) in Jammu & Kashmir. While district administrations across the Union Territory, both those operating DDAC facilities and those still awaiting them, continue to convene periodic reviews under the NCORD (Narco Coordination Centre) mechanism, these meetings have largely remained confined to procedural updates on seizures, arrests, and awareness campaigns. The more substantive pillars of de-addiction policy—like reducing stigma, fostering community-based reintegration, enabling sustainable pathways for recovery, and promoting whole-person rehabilitation—continue to receive insufficient attention.
This persistent policy–execution gap underscores a fundamental truth: enforcement and surveillance, while indispensable, cannot substitute for healing infrastructures that restore dignity, agency, and social inclusion to those battling addiction. The envisioned DDACs must, therefore, be operationalised without further delay, particularly in the districts classified as Gap Districts under the NAPDDR framework. Failure to act swiftly risks squandering a life-saving opportunity to translate policy intent into tangible social transformation. Prolonged inaction will only deepen vulnerability, entrench relapse cycles, reinforce gendered stigma, and perpetuate preventable overdose deaths, thereby condemning yet another generation to the silent epidemic of addiction.
In light of both the present findings and prior recommendations, this article submits a compact set of evidence-informed imperatives for immediate consideration. The Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Government of India, is urged to expedite the sanction and approval of NGO partnerships for establishing District De-Addiction Centres (DDACs) in the identified Gap Districts, namely Shopian, Poonch, Anantnag, Baramulla, Doda, Ganderbal, Kathua, Kishtwar, Ramban, Reasi, and Udhampur.
In parallel, a comprehensive mapping and transparent audit of all de-addiction and rehabilitation facilities across J&K must be undertaken to ensure equitable distribution, accountability, and coordinated policy alignment with the core objectives of NAPDDR.
Recommendations:
Immediate operationalisation of DDACs with Forensic-Toxicological screening and research facilities: The foremost priority must be the release of advance Grant-in-Aid and fast-track approvals for the twelve identified Gap Districts under the NAPDDR scheme. Existing nominated accommodations should be promptly converted into fully functional, staffed DDAC pilots with clearly defined milestones covering patient intake, clinical detoxification, psychological counselling, and vocational reintegration. Given the rapid evolution of synthetic and designer drugs, traditional surveillance systems are increasingly inadequate. Integrating forensic toxicology with AI-driven monitoring and predictive analytics can significantly reduce detection delays, enabling law enforcement, clinicians, and public health agencies to coordinate swift, data-informed responses. In the context of Jammu & Kashmir, such an integrated model would not only save lives but also build institutional resilience against future addiction threats.
Comprehensive mapping of De-addiction and rehabilitation facilities across J&K: An exhaustive, GIS-enabled mapping of all existing and proposed de-addiction and rehabilitation centres must be undertaken across the Union Territory. This mapping should include both government-supported and private facilities, categorising them by capacity, service quality, accessibility, cost structure, innovatory acumen, and staff qualifications. Such a transparent database will help identify underserved regions, prevent duplication of resources, and ensure equitable distribution of services. The mapping process must also incorporate real-time data dashboards for inter-departmental coordination, linking the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, Health & Medical Education Department, and district administrations under a unified monitoring system aligned with NAPDDR goals.
Community-based recovery and public awareness initiatives: Parallel to institutional expansion, efforts must intensify toward stigma reduction and community-based recovery models. Mobilising local self-help groups, Panchayati Raj institutions, and youth clubs can build sustainable support networks for recovering individuals. Public education campaigns, grounded in scientific evidence rather than fear-based narratives, should emphasise addiction as a neurobiological and psychosocial disorder deserving compassion and structured treatment.
Institutional coordination and Forensic-Clinical integration: A joint framework between forensic laboratories, medical colleges, and DDACs should be institutionalised. Routine toxicological screenings and data sharing can support both prevention and prosecution by establishing real-time substance use trends. Training programs for DDAC staff in forensic toxicology and evidence preservation would also ensure procedural integrity in medico-legal contexts and strengthen the bridge between healthcare and justice systems.
Integrated law-enforcement and health partnerships enabling shift from punitive to public-health-oriented policies: Conventional punitive responses to drug use have historically reinforced cycles of marginalisation and placed an unsustainable burden on the judicial and correctional systems, without addressing the neurobiological and socio-economic roots of addiction. To recalibrate enforcement toward a public-health-oriented paradigm, it is imperative to institutionalise diversion pathways, ensuring that individuals apprehended for personal consumption are clinically assessed and referred to structured treatment and counselling rather than subjected to automatic prosecution.
Simultaneously, when traffickers and suppliers are apprehended, investigative protocols must mandate the systematic collection of intelligence on user networks, with such data being routed to relevant health and rehabilitation agencies for timely intervention. Embedding clinical liaisons or addiction specialists within law-enforcement teams would ensure that every major seizure or arrest triggers a parallel public-health response, encompassing epidemiological surveillance, harm-reduction outreach, and localised rehabilitation initiatives.
This dual-track approach enables a principled differentiation between high-level traffickers, who warrant strict legal action, and low-level users, who require medical and psychosocial care. Global evidence consistently demonstrates that integrated enforcement–health frameworks reduce harm, lower recidivism, and enhance systemic efficiency by relieving courts and prisons of preventable caseloads. For Jammu & Kashmir, where addiction often intersects with conflict stress, unemployment, and social fragmentation, such a shift would not only advance justice and public health but also lay the foundation for recovery, reintegration, and sustainable community resilience.
Workforce development to build capacity and retain specialists: The sustainability and efficacy of any addiction-response framework ultimately rest on the strength, competence, and continuity of its human resources. Knowledge, when actively translated into clinical excellence, community engagement, and research innovation, becomes the most powerful instrument for social transformation. Jammu & Kashmir, however, faces an acute deficit of trained professionals across the addiction-care continuum. To bridge this gap, there is an urgent need to fast-track specialised fellowships for psychiatrists, addiction medicine physicians, counsellors, and forensic toxicologists, reinforced by structured incentives such as rural service grants, targeted research funding, and career advancement credits.
Economic reintegration and livelihoods to make recovery sustainable: Recovery from addiction cannot be sustained without parallel social and economic stabilisation. In Jammu & Kashmir, where most District De-Addiction Centres (DDACs) remain non-functional pending release of Grant-in-Aid (GIA) from the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment (MoSJ&E), there is an urgent need to transform these envisioned centres into fully operational ‘Recovery and Reintegration Hubs’. Once activated, DDACs must move beyond clinical detoxification to systematically integrate vocational training, skill development, guaranteed apprenticeships, and microcredit support, enabling rehabilitated individuals to rebuild self-reliance. Confidentiality safeguards must accompany these initiatives so that employment becomes a tool of dignity, not discrimination. Structured aftercare, linking counselling, probationary mentoring, and community follow-up, can stabilise recovery at the most relapse-prone phase.
Youth-centred prevention and safe alternatives: Adolescence and early adulthood constitute a critical window of vulnerability, making this age an experimentation age where curiosity, peer influence, and the pressures of performance converge with increasing exposure to psychoactive substances. In today’s hyper-competitive and rapidly changing environment, many young individuals resort to quick, often hazardous means of coping with academic stress, unemployment anxiety, or social alienation, placing them at heightened risk of substance initiation and dependency. To counter this, Jammu & Kashmir urgently requires a comprehensive youth-centred prevention framework that shall integrate evidence-based education, mental health awareness, and creative engagement.
Cross-border intelligence cooperation and supply disruption: Curbing drug abuse and addiction in Jammu & Kashmir cannot be achieved without dismantling the sophisticated trafficking networks that fuel supply. These networks increasingly exploit regional vulnerabilities, porous borders, and digital ecosystems, making them resistant to isolated enforcement. Therefore, it is imperative to strengthen cross-border intelligence cooperation by investing in both human intelligence and advanced electronic/cyber capabilities. J&K’s enforcement agencies, in coordination with national counterparts, must establish structured intelligence-sharing mechanisms with neighbouring states and international agencies such as UNODC and INTERPOL, enabling early detection of trafficking routes, precursor diversion, and darknet supply chains. Joint operations should prioritise disrupting synthetic drug production hubs, organised crime syndicates, and high-level trafficking nodes, rather than focusing enforcement disproportionately on low-level users, who are often victims of the larger nexus.
Monitoring, evaluation, and research agenda for measuring what matters most: Effective drug policy cannot thrive in an evidence vacuum; it must be continually informed by real-time, reliable, and representative data. For Jammu & Kashmir, establishing a State Addiction Surveillance and Research Unit (SASRU) is pivotal to ensuring that decisions are data-driven rather than assumption-based. This unit should function as an integrated knowledge hub—triangulating data from Addiction Treatment Facilities (ATFs), District De-Addiction Centres (DDACs), Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) seizure reports, hospital records, mortality and overdose data, and community-level surveys.
Together, these streams can generate a dynamic and adaptive evidence ecosystem capable of informing timely, targeted interventions. Beyond surveillance, the region must prioritise longitudinal and mixed-methods research that investigates underexplored and sensitive domains such as gendered patterns of addiction, stigma and reintegration barriers, youth initiation pathways, and the contextual effectiveness of innovations like mobile addiction response units and AI-driven early warning systems. These approaches would enable not just retrospective understanding but predictive insight, allowing stakeholders to anticipate and mitigate risks before they escalate.
Such an evidence architecture would strengthen prevention, treatment, and policy coherence, ensuring that resource allocation, community programming, and law enforcement strategies are empirically guided, ethically sound, and contextually relevant. In essence, a robust monitoring and evaluation agenda ensures that Jammu & Kashmir’s fight against addiction measures not only how much is done, but what truly makes a difference.
Therefore, in light of the above facts and circumstances, this appeal is straightforward yet urgent as a national strategy without local delivery constitutes an ethical failure. The public health calculus is equally clear—operational DDACs, integrating clinical care, social reintegration, and data-driven surveillance, will save lives, reduce criminalisation of low-level users, and protect communities. For Jammu & Kashmir, embedding rigorous monitoring, evaluation, and research into the addiction response framework is not a choice but a moral and institutional necessity—the foundation upon which sustainable, evidence-based policymaking must stand.
In a region where conflict has already claimed generations, we cannot allow another to be quietly consumed by a preventable and treatable public health menace. This is an earnest invitation to concerned minister(s), administrators, funders, clinicians, and civil society alike to convert commitments into capacity, statistics into services, and policy into tangible recovery pathways.
About the writer
Dr Sami Ullah is Co-founder and Chairman of the RADISAT Foundation, which was allotted rent-free space by the District Magistrate Shopian to establish a Drug De-Addiction Centre under the NAPDDR scheme. The project awaits Grant-in-Aid sanction from the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment, GoI. The said foundation works for public health advocacy at the intersection of forensic science, law, addiction recovery, and grassroots intervention.
sa********@***il.com