Addiction and recovery in India: What the latest data actually tells us

Almost everyone in India knows someone with a drinking or drug problem. An uncle who drinks too much, a neighbour’s son who went to rehab and got better, a friend who started taking too many drugs. 

The numbers behind those stories are large. India’s last full national survey on substance use was done in 2018. It found that alcohol is used by around 16 crore people. That is roughly one in seven Indians between the ages of 10 and 75. Alcohol is the most used substance in the country. 

The same survey showed that more than 7 crore people in India live with a substance use disorder. The point at which substance use stops being a choice and starts being a dependence, an addiction. Out of these, 1.2 crore are children and 58 lakh are women. These are spread across students, parents, workers, and people of all ages across every state in the country. 

It’s important to remember here that substance use disorder is a health condition and not a character flaw. It is a medical problem that can be diagnosed, treated, and recovered from. It is not a moral failing or a lack of willpower. This distinction is important because shame is what keeps most people from seeking help. And most people in India who need help are not getting it. 

This blog goes into detail about the data, looking at who is affected and by what, which states show the highest use, and how the treatment system is in India. 

India’s addiction data sources: Government surveys, NCRB reports, and NMHS explained

Before we get into the details of the statistics, let’s understand where we get our data from. No single source can give us the whole picture. India’s addiction data is stitched together from several surveys, each measuring something different. 

The biggest is the 2018 national survey, which is going to be followed up by a much bigger successor, the National Drug Use Survey, due in 2027. There are four other sources that give us insight into the larger picture:

• The National Mental Health Survey (NMHS), 2015-16: This survey was conducted by NIMHANS, Bengaluru. This is the country’s most cited measure of the wider mental health picture in India. Its findings are also relevant here because mental health and addiction often travel together and have overlapping treatment modalities. One stark finding is the treatment gap identified. 
• The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB): The NCRB publishes two reports of relevance here.
  • Crime in India tracks seizures and arrests made under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. 
  • Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India records drug-overdose deaths and suicides linked to addiction. 

The most recent finding was covered in 2023 and published in 2025. 

• NAPDDR and NMBA administrative data: The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment runs the country’s main drug-demand-reduction programmes and logs their activity through a central Management Information System. This is where we can find the most current data on how many treatment centers exist, how many people sought help, and how many awareness campaigns were conducted. 
• UNODC survey, 2004: Before 2018, the last national survey on drug use was conducted around 2000–2001 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for the Ministry and published in 2004. This is useful for making comparisons with the current data and assessing trends. 

Which drugs are used most in India: A substance-by-substance breakdown

All figures given in the table below are from the 2018 national survey, the last full national count. “Current use” means use in the past 12 months. “Needs help” means use has become harmful or dependent.

Substance	Current users	Estimated number	Share needing help
Alcohol	~14.6%	~16 crore	~5.2% (>5.7 crore)
Cannabis	~2.8%	~3.1 crore	~0.66% (~72 lakh)
Opioids	~2.06%	~2.3 crore	~0.55% (~60 lakh)
Sedatives	~1.08%	~1.18 crore	–
Inhalants	~0.7%	–	~23 lakh (children+adults)
Cocaine	~0.10%	–	–
Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS)	~0.18%	–	–
Hallucinogens	~0.12%	–	–
People who inject drugs (PWID)	–	~8.5 lakh	–

Alcohol 

Alcohol is India’s most used substance. Roughly 16 crore people in India drink, and alcohol use is 17 times higher in men than in women. Of the people who drink, more than 5.7 crore have crossed into dependent or harmful use. This means that every third drinker in India needs help. 

Cannabis

About 3.1 crore people in India have used some form of cannabis in the past year. About 72 lakh people need help with it. Bhang is a more common form with around 2.2 crore users, but ganja and charas drive more dependence, with around 1.3 crore people using them. So the drink that feels traditional and harmless accounts for more users, while the smoked forms account for more of the harm.

Opioids

Opioids are the drugs that bring people to treatment the most. Among the 2.06% using opioids, about 1.14% use heroin (smack, chitta, or brown sugar), 0.96% use pharmaceutical opioids that include codeine-based cough syrups, tramadol tablets, or buprenorphine, and 0.52% use opium or afeem (doda or bhukki). About 60 lakh people need help with opioid use. Unlike alcohol, opioid use is sharply concentrated in a handful of states and regions, which we look at next.

Sedatives and inhalants

Roughly 1.18 crore people use sedatives non-medically, that is, without a prescription. The major concern here is that the use is higher among children (1.17%) than in adults (0.58%), likely because these are cheap and easy to find. About 4.6 lakh children and 18 lakh adults need help with inhalant use. 

Cocaine, ATS, and hallucinogens

These are the least used categories in India. Cocaine at about 0.10%, amphetamine-type stimulants at 0.18%, and hallucinogens at 0.12%. Stimulant use has been on the rise globally. 

People who inject drugs

About 8.5 lakh people in India inject drugs, which mostly include opioids. About 46% of injected drugs are heroin and pharmaceutical opioids. This group carries some of the highest health risks of all, because sharing needles spreads HIV and hepatitis C.

Which states have the highest drug and alcohol use in India

Prevalence is the share of people in a state’s population who use a substance. Whereas absolute numbers count the actual people affected. So states with a bigger population, like Uttar Pradesh, would be on top even if their prevalence is low. A high-prevalence state has a concentrated crisis; a high-headcount state has the largest number of people needing care. With that in mind, let’s look at the data from the 2018 survey: 

• Alcohol: The highest prevalence is in Chhattisgarh, Tripura, Punjab, Arunachal Pradesh, and Goa. States where harmful or dependent drinking is the highest include Tripura, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh, and Arunachal Pradesh. Several states appear on both lists, which tells you that the drinking there isn’t just widespread; it’s also problematic.
• Cannabis: Use is above the national average in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Sikkim, Chhattisgarh, and Delhi. Two of these, Sikkim and Punjab, stand out for disproportionately high rates of cannabis dependence, not just casual use.
• Opioids: This is the most geographically lopsided category. By share of population, the worst-affected are the northeastern states, Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim, and Manipur, along with Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi. By absolute numbers, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan account for nearly half of all opioid use disorder cases. 
• Inhalants: Because inhalant use is largely a children’s problem, the states that matter most here are the ones with the largest numbers of affected children: Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi, and Haryana.
• Injecting drugs: The hotspots for people who inject drugs stretch across regions: Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Manipur, and Nagaland. This spread matters for public health because injecting carries the highest risk of HIV and hepatitis C.

Drug use in Punjab: The state that is most often discussed when talking about drugs is Punjab. The numbers show why. Nearly 12 lakh people with drug addiction have been registered and are overwhelmingly dependent on heroin, commonly called chitta. 

The NCRB 2023 data showed that Punjab recorded the highest number of drug-overdose deaths in the country, with 89 deaths. Though this number is less than 144 deaths in 2022. Punjab also notes the highest drug-trafficking cases. 

The People Behind the Numbers: Who Is Most at Risk

Children and adolescents

Estimates show that around 1.2 crore children in India are affected by substance use. Inhalants are the most commonly used drugs among children. These include glue, correction fluid, paint thinner, and petrol. All of these are legal, sold openly and easy for a child to get their hands on. For children living in the streets and working, inhalants are often the gateway drug. 

A nationwide survey of school students found that about 10% had used some substance in the past year. The harder number is what happened next: only about 1.1% of those who had used sought any help at all, and formal treatment-seeking was lower still, at roughly 0.8%. So the gap between children who use and children who reach care is enormous. 

Women

Around 58 lakh women in India are affected by substance use. In some states, women’s alcohol use is higher, around 15.6% in Arunachal Pradesh and 13.7% in Chhattisgarh. Another important thing to note is that women are certainly undercounted. Household surveys depend on people answering honestly, and the stigma attached to a woman who drinks or uses drugs is heavier than it is for a man. So it is likely that many people don’t disclose it. 

People who inject drugs

Nearly 8.5 lakh people inject drugs in India. This complicates things because there are risks beyond addiction, such as HIV and hepatitis C, due to sharing needles. This is why injecting drug use draws specific attention from health programmes, and why harm-reduction measures like clean-needle access exist. 

What Help Exists: India’s De-Addiction and Rehabilitation System 

India has a large network of centres, helplines and programmes for de-addiction treatment. It’s larger than many people would assume and has grown a lot in recent years. But the treatment gap in India is still huge. 

Who runs it? 

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment (MoSJE) is the body responsible for reducing drug demand in India. It works on the treatment and prevention side. It works mainly through the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR), an umbrella scheme. 

Types of centres

• IRCAs (Integrated Rehabilitation Centres for Addicts) – the main inpatient de-addiction centres that offer detox, counselling, and aftercare. Many are run by NGOs with government support. 
• ODICs (Outreach and Drop-In Centres) – these centres focus on screening, counselling, and referral. 
• CPLIs (Community Peer-led Interventions) – community programs that focus on prevention, especially aimed at children and young people. 
• DDACs (District De-Addiction Centres) – District-level centres that focus on treatment and prevention.
• ATFs (Addiction Treatment Facilities) – These are units within government hospitals that focus on addiction care. 

In 2025, government statements put the number of IRCAs at around 375, and the overall count of de-addiction centres across the country at 768. There is also a national toll-free de-addiction helpline, 14446, which has taken more than 4.69 lakh calls, often the first step for a family that doesn’t know where else to turn. 

Funding has risen sharply. The NAPDDR budget grew from about ₹100 crore in 2018–19 to roughly ₹450 crore in 2024–25. But there are certain limitations. One is that 80% of the de-addiction centres are in urban areas, leaving rural areas underserved, where most of the need lies. Another finding showed that only about 30% of the existing de-addiction centres meet operational standards. 

Voluntary vs Involuntary Admission: What the Law Actually Says

One of the most common questions families ask is “Can you put someone into a de-addiction centre against their will?”  The law has a clear framework on this. 

Admission to any de-addiction center or mental health treatment center is governed by the Mental Healthcare Act (MHCA) 2017. This act focuses on patient rights and consent. There are two routes into treatment under this act:

• Independent admission is the voluntary route. A person who has the capacity to make decisions and who consents is admitted as an independent patient. It is important to note that such a patient can also leave treatment whenever they wish to. 
• Supported admission exists for people with high support needs. People who genuinely cannot make decisions for themselves. It requires a nominated representative acting on the person’s behalf, certification that admission is the “least restrictive option” available, and oversight from a Mental Health Review Board. In other words, the law makes admitting someone without their consent a supervised exception, not a family’s private decision.

There is a unique provision in section 64A of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. It offers immunity from prosecution to a dependent person charged with consuming or possessing a small quantity of a substance for personal use if they volunteer for de-addiction treatment. This is a deliberate step to move from punishment to care. 

Unregulated centers are another problem in India. Raids in 2024 and 2025 across Punjab and Haryana have rescued people who were detained without any lawful basis. Help for months, sometimes physically abused. In legal terms, these aren’t involuntary admissions or supported admissions. Supported admission is a supervised, legal process with safeguards. These are simple unlawful confinement centers pretending to be treatment centers. 

The law does allow, in narrow and supervised circumstances, for someone to be treated without their consent. What it never allows is what unregulated centres actually do.

India’s Addiction Treatment Gap: How Many People Actually Get Help

The 2018 survey says access to treatment for substance use disorders is “grossly inadequate.” Among people dependent on alcohol, only about 1 in 38 received any kind of treatment. For inpatient care, the figure falls to 1 in 180, which is actually the kind of help that someone with dependence needs. For illicit drugs, where the harms are frequently sharper, only about 1 in 20 dependent people had ever received inpatient treatment. The National Mental Health Survey of 2015–16 found that somewhere between 70% and 92% of people with a mental illness in India received no formal treatment. 

According to the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, the number of people seeking treatment for substance use rose by about 294% in five years, from roughly 2.08 lakh in 2020 to over 8.20 lakh in 2025. A rise in people seeking treatment is not the same as a rise in people recovering. Tracking recovery requires a much deeper survey and analysis, which we do not have yet. 

Seizures and arrests

When arrests increase, it could mean one of two things. One is that there is an increase in drug activity. It could also mean that there is more aggressive policing happening. Arrests under the NDPS have increased in the last few years from around 82 thousand in 2018 to about 1.5 lakh in 2022. 

Roughly 39.2 lakh kilograms of narcotics were seized in 2018, against about 20.8 lakh kilograms in 2022, a large drop that almost certainly reflects the makeup of that year’s busts rather than a halving of the drug supply.

Deaths where a substance played a part

Overdose deaths

The NCRB’s Accidental Deaths and Suicides in India report for 2023 recorded 654 drug overdose deaths nationally. Punjab had the highest, followed by Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. This is almost certainly an undercount because overdose deaths are easy to misclassify, and many never reach official records. 

Suicide

“Drug abuse or alcohol addiction” was recorded as the cause in about 7.0% of all suicides in India in 2023. This was the third most common reason listed after family problems and illness. This statistic reflects how deeply addiction can entangle with despair, debt, isolation, and untreated mental illness. 

Road deaths, poisonings and liquor tragedies

The data for these statistics is not clearly available, but this is a very real problem. The clearest of these is drunk and drugged driving. India recorded about 1.74 lakh road-accident deaths in 2023. Separately, the report continues to log deaths from consuming illicit or spurious liquor, the hooch tragedies that periodically kill dozens at a time in one district.

But the honest headline here is undercounting, and it’s severe. A death gets filed under its immediate cause like a crash, a drowning, a fall, a fire, a poisoning and not the drink or drug behind it. Intoxication is often never tested for at the scene and rarely recorded even when suspected.

Unregulated rehab problem

India’s official de-addiction system has grown significantly. But there are also many unlicensed centres that operate outside the law and don’t have any medical supervision. For a family that is desperately seeking help, telling the distinction between an official centre and an illegal centre becomes very important. 

Raids in Punjab shut down roughly 21 illegal de-addiction centres in 2024. In several raids, no medicines, equipment or qualified staff were found at all.

One reason why these centres exist is the gap between demand and supply. There is a lack of centers, especially in rural areas. When a family is frightened, stigmatised and out of options, and the nearest legitimate centre is full, far away or expensive, an unlicensed operator willing to “take him in today” can feel like the only choice.

On paper, there are rules. Punjab’s 2020 registration norms, for instance, require every legitimate de-addiction centre to hold a valid registration and a unique identification number. The problem is enforcement. 

How to check whether a de-addiction centre is legitimate

If you’re helping someone find care, a few practical checks can protect them.

• Ask about registration: a genuine centre should be registered with the relevant state authority and should be able to show you the registration number. If they are unwilling to share this, then that is a warning sign. 
• Look for medical supervision: The rehab should have a doctor and trained counsellors.
• Check consent and discharge terms: Under the law, a consenting adult admitted voluntarily has the right to request discharge. 
• Be cautious about isolation: If centers cut patients off entirely from their families, refuse to let relatives visit or inspect the premises, that is a warning sign.
• Verify before you pay: There should be proper paperwork, a clear fee structure, and they should also be open to sharing treatment plans. 

What the Data Still Misses

Most data comes from household surveys, which depend entirely on people answering honestly. That might still work for something that is sort of accepted in society, like men consuming alcohol. But anything that is more stigmatised is likely to be hidden. Like women who use substances, adolescents, and people who inject drugs. The true figures for these groups are certainly higher than reported. 

India’s last national survey was conducted in 2018. The one before that was conducted around 2001. The gap is of nearly two decades. This means that our policies can’t stay updated. A new survey is going to happen in 2027, but it gets harder to track trends with such long intervals in the data. 

Even with treatment figures, we only have data about how many people entered treatment. It doesn’t tell us what happened afterwards. Did they recover? Did they relapse? Did they quit treatment? Recovery is the most important part here, and the data can’t track it yet. 

Conclusion

India’s struggle with addiction is vast. Spread across every state, age and crores of people. The treatment system is growing but still needs a lot of work. But on the good side, far more people are seeking help now than five years ago. A new national survey is upcoming which will give us new insights. Addiction is being treated more like a disease and not like a moral failing. 

If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use, you can browse through centers across India here.