Towards the late 1990s and early 2000s the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment realized that existing NGOs needed to improve their quality of service delivery and expand their coverage by including new NGOs. For this, the MSJE and UNODC launched Country-wide Demand Reduction Programme Projects E-40 and E-41. Under these projects there was a provision for developing Regional ResourceTraining Centres. Since the projects were to end by December 2002, the Ministry, ILO and UNODC realized a need of developing a viable structure beyond the project period. 8 NGOs from all over India were identified and selected as nodal centers, known as the Regional Resource Training Centres (RRTCs). These were primarily selected owing to their strength, experience and expertise in the field of Drug Abuse Prevention programmes.

To increase the effectiveness and scope of its outreach, the Ministry, in collaboration with the United Nation Drug Control Program, Regional Office of South Asia (UNODC ROSA) has identified Regional- Resource and Training Centres (RRTCs), based in NGOs, for different regions of the country. The RRTCs are responsible for carrying out need based training programmes for the professional development of service providers, technical backstopping, assisting in programme implementation, monitoring the trends of drug abuse in the respective regions and accordingly provide feed back to the NCDAP and the Ministry for formulation of national response.

The National Centre for Drug Abuse Prevention (NCDAP) was set up in lieu of the already existing Bureau of Drug Abuse Prevention in the National Institute of Social Defence, in September 1998 to provide technical inputs to the Government of India’s programmes on Drug Abuse Prevention. In order to have a wider coverage of services throughout the country and to improve the services in drug demand reduction, the Center has been expanding the reach of its activities and trying to bring about a qualitative improvement in the delivery of services. The focal point is to provide opportunities for strengthening the capacities of the service providers actively involved in the field and to have adequate information on the trends and patterns of Drug Abuse and the effectiveness of service delivery systems.

About Us:

National Centre for Drug Abuse Prevention (NC-DAP) was set up in lieu of the already existing Bureau of Drug Abuse Prevention in the National Institute of Social Defence in September 1998 to provide technical inputs to the Government of India's programmes on Drug Abuse Prevention. In order to have a wider coverage of services throughout the country and to improve the services in drug demand reduction, the Center has been expanding the reach of its activities and trying to bring about a qualitative improvement in the service delivery. The focal point is to provide opportunities for strengthening the capacities of the service providers actively involved in the field of drug demand reduction and to have adequate information on the trends and patterns of Drug Abuse and the effectiveness of service delivery systems.

Aims and Objectives:

Updating information and creating a database on extent and pattern of Drug Abuse and its various interventions at local, regional, national and international levels.

Target Audience:

The Centre caters primarily to the training requirements of those functionaries/service providers working in the treatment and rehabilitation centres supported by the Ministry including Project Officers, Counsellors, Social workers, Out-reach Workers, Community Workers, nurses and Ward Boys/Care Takers. The Centre also organizes need based training programmes to the representatives of concerned government departments including health, youth affairs, prisons and correctional institutions, and functionaries working in NGOs in the related sectors including HIV/AIDS.

Capacity building of various levels of functionaries working in the field of Drug Demand Reduction

Upgrading information and establishment of appropriate database and monitoring systems

Development of linkages, facilitating advocacy, and promoting networking arrangements in the field of Drug Demand Reduction at local, regional, national and international levels

Development of a Website nisd.gov.in for sharing and dissemination of information on various aspects relating to drug demand reduction.

The Centre implements the DAMS activity as an on going activity to monitor the extent of Drug Abuse in the country. The Centre has developed a series of data bases to increase the outreach and capacity building programmes. Some of the databases developed are :

Documentation: The Centre in collaboration with the organisations, UNODC and ILO has developed a few pamphlets on certain thematic issues of concern in the field of drug demand reduction such as : assessing a person with drug dependents, recovery, individual counseling, family and drug addiction, family counseling, after care services, relapse management, and prevention in the community.

Curriculum/syllabus developed : The centre has instituted a Three Months Certificate Course on De-addiction Counselling and Rehabilitation and One Month Basic Foundation Course on Drug Abuse Prevention. The course outline alongwith its details is at Annexure - .

Training Modules : The centre has developed few training manuals and modules of short duration on specific areas of concern in the field of Drug Demand Reduction

One of the successful initiatives has been the integration of HIV/AIDS prevention programme of the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare into the substance abuse programme of 100 NGO run De-addiction Centres supported by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, for which training is being provided by NCDAP to all the field workers attached to these centres in collaboration with NACO

UNODC and the Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment (MSJE), Govt. of India have implemented two collaborative projects AD/IND/99/E40 titled "Community Wide Drug Demand Reduction in India" and AD/IND/99/E41 titled "Community Wide Drug Demand Reduction in Northeastern States of India". The project objective was to assist the Government to establish infrastructure to initiate support and sustain drug demand reduction activities on a nationwide scale. The intention of the projects E-40 was to mobilize Community Based Organisations (CBOs) and enterprises to reduce and prevent drug abuse in the country.

The NCDAP in collaboration with ILO has taken initiatives by providing training to curb the problem of alcohol and drug abuse at workplace through selected industries and voluntary sectors in some of the major industrial cities of the country.

The NC-DAP has collaborated with The Colombo Plan for various training activities. In country training programme on `Management of Treatment and Rehabilitation in Prisons/Correctional Settings' was organized at New Delhi. The training programme was specifically designed and developed to address the increasing number of drug related problems in prison and correctional settings.

In order to increase its outreach and decentralize the training activities and interventions consistent with local needs, the NCDAP has identified 8 Regional Resource Training Centres (RRTCs) with 8 NGOs having the technical capabilities with objective of providing training and information at the regional levels. These centres have also been mandated for regular monitoring of programmes, assessing training needs of the service providers and conduct advocacy at the regional level. This is considered desirable and pragmatic in view of the size of the country and regional variations necessitating specific strategies. The centre by way of training and capacity building was able to promote convergence of advocacy, prevention, rehabilitation programmes of all relevant Government Departments as also Non-Governmental activities.