Srinagar, Sep 13: J&K has rolled out Indis first three-year, patient-centric drug rehabilitation policy, that turns the tables and makes the patient, rather than the treatment, the peg of the entire story.
It is aimed at ensuring that treatment and support continue beyond the hospital, and a system of care follows the patient at every step of life, everywhere they go. If it works, J&K will have built the first rehab system in the country designed to survive the patient leaving it.
The Rehabilitation and Socio-Economic Reintegration Scheme for Drug Abuse Victims, 2026, provides for sustained rehabilitation and socio-economic reintegration of people recovering from drug abuse. It shifts the focus from treatment alone to long-term recovery.
This week, a new drug-rehabilitation centre was thrown open at the Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (IMHANS) Srinagar.
The set-up was lauded for being well-equipped with requisite staff and infrastructure: counselling rooms, a group-therapy space, a partnership in the works with AIIMS Delhi.
However, the more consequential part of this innovation is the Rehabilitation and Socio-Economic Reintegration Scheme for Drug Abuse Victims, 2026.
The detailed plan and policy takes the focus off from medicine only approach. It puts the responsibility of the person afflicted with drug addiction onto the system – the system is meant to take charge of the long-term rehab when the person’s leaves the hospital.
Chief Secretary AtalDulloo said rehabilitation must be a sustained journey extending beyond treatment.
With beneficiaries supported to reconnect with families and communities and return to productive lives, he hoped the new integrated model will help in better outcomes for J&K.
“The framework seeks to move beyond conventional detoxification and treatment by adopting a holistic approach that combines medical care, psychosocial support, education, skill development, employment opportunities and sustained monitoring,” he said.
For decades, drug treatment in India revolved around rehabilitation centres. Knowingly or not, all still follow what’s known as the “Kripa Model”.
It involves detoxification, coping-strategy counselling, and a return to normal life. It is treated largely as the end of the intervention.
Punjab’s 2017 OOAT model added biometric attendance and a five-stage medical protocol supervised by psychiatrists.
The underlying logic stayed doctor-led and finished once treatment ended. Nationally, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment’s de-addiction infrastructure, Integrated Rehabilitation Centres, Addiction Treatment Facilities, District De-Addiction Centres, funds the buildings and staff for treatment.
No central scheme obligates what happens to a person in month eight, or month twenty, after they walk out.
J&K’s 2026 scheme closes that gap by law rather than by goodwill. It legally binds a three-year cycle, treatment, livelihood reintegration, and long-term monitoring, into a single case file.
It hands that file to a Social Welfare Official, not a doctor, who stays the named case manager for all three years.
He or she coordinates school re-enrolment, skill training, job placement, and scheduled follow-ups at 3, 6, 12, and 24 months after the patient is discharged.
A discharge is not the exit for patient, but the certification decision made by a District Task Force.
The second important point is how the scheme treats failure of de-addiction treatment.
A relapse is explicitly defined in the policy as a health condition to be managed. It is not a violation to be punished.
Missed counselling sessions, disengagement from school or work, behavioural changes, or family distress are flagged automatically.
This leads to reassessment of case rather than an exit.
The pilot phase is now underway at IMHANS Srinagar.
Addiction Treatment Facilities operational in Jammu, Kathua, and Budgam waiting to launch it.
However, the real test is whether the government can make an institution, rather than a hospital, responsible for a person’s recovery for three years running.
