With a virtual address that reached every corner of the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally launched the 'Nasha Mukt Yuva for Viksit Bharat Sankalp Abhiyan' — a nationwide pledge-driven campaign to steer India's youth away from substance abuse and toward the promise of a developed nation by 2047. In Gandhinagar, the state-level event drew two of Gujarat's highest constitutional authorities to the stage.

Gandhinagar's state event: Governor and CM on one platform

At the Gandhinagar state-level programme held on 2 August 2026, Governor Acharya Devvrat and Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel stood together as the Prime Minister's virtual address played out across the venue. The presence of both the constitutional head and the elected head of the state underscored the official weight the Gujarat government placed on the launch.

Attendees — primarily youth — were administered the 'Nasha Mukt Yuva - Viksit Bharat Sankalp' ('Drug-Free Youth - Developed India Pledge') as part of the programme's core ritual, a collective oath that the campaign's organisers have designed to build personal accountability alongside public awareness.

The Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyan's five-year arc

The campaign is not new territory. The Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyan, run by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, was first launched in August 2020 to tackle substance abuse through awareness drives, counselling outreach, and community mobilisation. What this 2026 iteration adds is an explicit link to the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision — framing a drug-free youth not just as a social good but as a prerequisite for national development.

That framing is deliberate. Central government campaigns on drug abuse have consistently combined a high-visibility virtual national launch with simultaneous state-level events to maximise geographic reach. Gujarat, given its administrative alignment with the Union government, has repeatedly served as a prominent host for such programmes.

Modi's call to youth across Gujarat and beyond

In his address, Prime Minister Modi urged the youth of Gujarat and the rest of the country to commit to building a 'Nasha Mukt Bharat' — a drug-free India. The message was pitched not as a government directive but as a generational sankalp, or resolve — language that mirrors the broader Viksit Bharat Sankalp communication strategy of co-opting citizens as active stakeholders in national goals.

The campaign now moves to district-level rollout, where participation numbers and community mobilisation will determine whether the pledge translates into measurable demand reduction — the metric that the National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction has long set as the benchmark for such initiatives.