Three people, three scheme lines, and they have never met
The district already employs everybody this protocol needs. It employs them under three different programmes, in three different buildings, answering to three different departments, and there is no morning in the calendar on which all three are in the same room. That, and not money, is what is actually missing.
What is already there
The psychiatrist and the clinical psychologist are already appointed.
The District Mental Health Programme team is a psychiatrist, a clinical psychologist, a psychiatric social worker, a psychiatric nurse, a monitoring and evaluation officer and a case registry assistant, working from the district hospital and out to the Community and Primary Health Centres. Two of the three people this needs are on that list.
The de-addiction centre is already sanctioned.
A District De-Addiction Centre under the national plan carries residential treatment, outreach and drop in work, and peer led intervention together. It is where a man goes for the fortnight this site cannot give him.
The yoga instructor is already a post, one tier below.
The Ayush arm of Ayushman Arogya Mandir lists a Yoga Instructor in its staffing. The third person is not a new demand on the exchequer. He is a vacancy on an existing roll.
And the campaign that would host it is already in every district.
Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan has been in every district of the country since 15 August 2023, and the Ministry of Ayush runs yoga training under it with the line: say yes to yoga and no to drugs. In December 2025 the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment signed agreements with yoga institutions under the same campaign. The argument about whether yoga belongs in de-addiction has been settled at the level of national policy.
And there is now a number to beat.
A randomised trial published in JAMA Psychiatry on 7 January 2026 followed 59 men with opioid use disorder on an inpatient ward in India, all on buprenorphine, half also given yoga. Median time to withdrawal stabilisation was 5 days against 9, with large effects on heart rate variability, and 23 per cent of the effect was mediated by the rise in parasympathetic activity. That is a district-scale outcome measured in bed-days, which is the unit a district actually budgets in.
What is missing
One protocol, one hour, one register, and an order that puts the psychologist, the de-addiction counsellor and the yoga instructor in the same room on the same morning. Every other component is already funded and already staffed.
What to do first
Put one line in the district health plan.
Not a new scheme. A line that says which existing staff run which existing protocol on which morning, in how many blocks. A line in the plan is what makes an existing post accountable for a new thing.
Pick three blocks, not the whole district.
One where it will work, one where it will be hard, and one where nobody believes it. The third is the one that will teach you something, and a district that starts everywhere learns nothing anywhere.
Measure bed-days and time to stabilisation.
There is now a published figure to compare against, and it is the figure a finance officer understands. Attendance persuades a sarpanch. Bed-days persuade a district.
Use what is already written rather than commissioning a manual.
The whole protocol is public, free, counted movement by movement, and works on a phone with no signal. Nothing has to be procured, printed or licensed.
What to write down
Time to withdrawal stabilisation, bed-days, and retention at four weeks. Three numbers, all of which the district already collects for other reasons.
Beyond the district this stops being our business and starts being yours. What we will not do is claim results before they are published.
Where each of these comes from
- District Mental Health Programme under the National Mental Health Programme, Directorate General of Health Services. The district team is a psychiatrist, a clinical psychologist, a psychiatric social worker, a psychiatric or community nurse, a monitoring and evaluation officer, a case registry assistant and a ward assistant, working from the district hospital and out to Community and Primary Health Centres.
- National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, in force from 1 April 2018. Grants to States and to voluntary organisations for Integrated Rehabilitation Centres for Addicts, Community based Peer Led Interventions, Outreach and Drop In Centres, and District De-Addiction Centres, which carry what the first three carry together. socialjustice.gov.in
- Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan, launched 15 August 2020 in 372 districts and extended to every district of the country on 15 August 2023. nmba.dosje.gov.in
- Yoga for Opioid Withdrawal and Autonomic Regulation: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Psychiatry, 7 January 2026. PMID 41499110. 59 men with opioid use disorder on an inpatient ward in India, all on buprenorphine, half also given yoga: median time to withdrawal stabilisation 5 days against 9, large effects on heart rate variability, and 23 per cent of the effect mediated by the rise in parasympathetic activity.
- Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Memorandum of Understanding with Patanjali University and Sivananda Yoga Vedanta Ashram under Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan, December 2025.
- Ministry of Ayush yoga training programmes under Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan, carried under the line: say yes to yoga and no to drugs.