On August 1, government schools across Punjab began teaching a new drug prevention curriculum for students in grades 9 to 12. The program was launched to discourage drug use among teenagers and formed part of a broader strategy to curb both supply and demand.
Developed with guidance from Nobel laureate Prof Abhijit Banerjee, the course consisted of 15 sessions spread over 27 weeks. Each 35-minute class was held every two weeks and focused on helping students resist peer pressure, make thoughtful choices, and understand the risks of substance abuse. Lessons were supported with films, quizzes, posters, worksheets, and interactive activities.
Around 800,000 students in 3,658 government schools took part in the program. To make the rollout possible, over 6,500 teachers had been trained in advance to deliver the sessions.
Results from an earlier pilot in 78 schools in Amritsar and Tarn Taran had shown promising outcomes. Among 9,600 students, 90 percent recognised that even one experiment with drugs could lead to addiction. Belief in overcoming addiction through willpower alone fell sharply from 50 percent to 20 percent.
The initiative complemented the “War Against Drugs” campaign, which had been running since March 2025. In that time, more than 23,000 alleged traffickers were arrested, over 1,000 kilograms of heroin were seized, and properties linked to the trade were confiscated.
While enforcement continued, the government stressed that lasting impact required preventive measures. Officials noted that focusing on youth through schools might create a model for other states to adopt in the coming years.
