Fighting drug use among young people in India through edutainment

Substance abuse is a major public health issue in Punjab, where an estimated 4.5% of adults use heroin and nearly 35% of households have at least one person with a substance use disorder (AIIMS, 2019; Times of India, 2019). This issue is particularly prevalent in rural areas, partly because of their proximity to major heroin trafficking routes.

Public authorities have implemented a range of measures to address this issue, including awareness campaigns, rehabilitation programs, and police crackdowns, but traditional deterrence strategies have been largely ineffective. Research has shown that misconceptions about the risks of drugs increase the likelihood of experimentation and abuse of these substances (Rodrigues et al., 2018; Sutherland & Shepherd, 2001). A preliminary survey conducted by the research team among 100 users in addiction treatment programs and 210 young people has demonstrated the extent of these false beliefs: 52% of high school students believe that overcoming heroin addiction is primarily a matter of willpower, 54% consider experimenting with heroin as only slightly risky, 58% think that an addict cannot relapse after undergoing treatment once, and 80% of those with substance use disorders were unaware that these drugs were addictive when they first began using them.

"Edutainment" initiatives have proven effective in challenging these beliefs and reducing risky behaviors in comparable areas, including in Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Uganda (Banerjee et al., 2019; Bernard et al., 2014; Riley, 2018).

This project aims to evaluate the impact of an "edutainment" approach that combines entertainment and education, to address these misconceptions and reduce drug use among young people. This initiative builds on promising preliminary results from pilot projects conducted in schools, and will be scaled up to all vocational institutes in Punjab with FID funding.

The project is based on two key components:

• Component 1: Engaging teaching content. The research team has developed ten short documentary films which profile young adults in recovery, supported by interactive quizzes, classroom discussion materials, and practical activities. This focus on storytelling aims to foster empathy instead of using scare tactics, by drawing on people's experience to lend credibility and convey the reality of these risks.
• Component 2: Gradual rollout and rigorous evaluation. The program is being implemented in two phases:

1. Academic year 2025-2026 – widespread rollout: The program is currently being implemented in all ITIs, as well as in the polytechnic institutes originally targeted by this initiative. In ITIs, the curriculum is taught over five sessions, with an introductory session followed by four sessions on the main content, from early December 2025 to the end of March 2026. In the polytechnic institutes targeted by the program, seven sessions are being delivered to first- and second-year students, from late October 2025 to the end of March 2026. As part of the pilot program, students were offered incentives to undergo screening tests in four polytechnic institutes to assess feasibility and student response rates.
2. Academic year 2026-2027 — randomized controlled trial (RCT): The planned RCT will be conducted over the next academic year, based on the originally assigned treatment/control groups. Data will be collected through baseline and monitoring surveys, anonymous and voluntary individual screening, and wastewater analyses. For ITIs offering one-year training programs, no students who participated this year will be included in the RCT sample. Some students at polytechnic institutes with two- or three-year programs may be enrolled for both years; their prior participation in the program will be checked during the baseline survey and cross-referenced against attendance records to maintain the integrity of the control group.

The pilot studies conducted in 2023 and 2024, and then the wider rollout to 76 schools in Amritsar and Tarn Taran involving 10,000 students, have demonstrated a significant impact on misconceptions: the belief that overcoming addiction is simply a matter of willpower has decreased by 26.6 percentage points, the belief that a single course of treatment prevents relapse has decreased by 10 points, and the belief that medication is the only effective treatment has decreased by 18.3 points.

The 2026-2027 RCT will set out to prove that challenging these misconceptions leads to measurable changes in behavior. The project is focused on three main deliverables:

• The team expects to see an improvement of 4 to 12 percentage points in the main misconceptions about drugs, in keeping with the results from the pilot studies.
• Estimates suggest a likely reduction of around 1.7 percentage points in the rate of drug use detected through anonymous individual testing.
• In terms of education and employment outcomes, the project anticipates a 3.7 percentage point increase in the graduate employment rate, a 3.8 percentage point decrease in the school dropout rate, and a 3.7 percentage point increase in the attendance rate.

Beyond these results, the program is already being implemented across Punjab. Impressed by the program's initial impact on students' beliefs, in July 2025, the government of Punjab began expanding the initiative to all secondary schools and plans to make it an official part of the curriculum from the 2026–2027 school year. The videos will also be posted on YouTube to reach out-of-school youth.

Resources:

• Preventing Drug Use: A Novel Film-based Curriculum, 2025