Drug Prevention among Youth in Punjab: Evaluating a Novel Film-Based Curriculum in Vocational Institutes

Policy Context

Mistaken beliefs about drugs and the nature of addiction could contribute to high rates of experimentation and drug use among youth in Punjab, India. Youth tend to underestimate the addictiveness of substances such as heroin (in this context, chitta), overestimate their ability to overcome addiction using willpower alone, and underestimate the challenges on the road to recovery.

Based on these insights, CEGA, J-PAL South Asia, the Government of Punjab, and an internationally-renowned filmmaker collaborated to develop a novel video-based drug prevention program that specifically targets these mistaken beliefs. The program consists of a series of documentary videos featuring individuals recovering from addiction sharing their experiences with drugs in an honest and relatable way. Evidence from a randomized evaluation of the program demonstrated that the drug prevention program effectively shifted beliefs about the risks of drug use and the nature of addiction: Students randomly assigned to participate in the program were 30% more likely to believe that heroin is highly addictive, and nearly 50% less likely to believe that willpower alone would be sufficient to overcome addiction.

Study Design

Following the at-scale implementation of this novel video-based drug prevention program throughout all government-run secondary schools in Punjab, the next phase of the study will evaluate the impact of the program as implemented in all vocational institutes throughout Punjab. Vocational institutes enroll large numbers of young adults, many from modest economic backgrounds preparing to enter the workforce. At these critical ages, they are highly vulnerable to peer pressure, misinformation, and risky experimentation. Despite this, drug-prevention interventions in Punjab have so far largely focused on secondary schools, leaving vocational students outside the ambit of structured prevention programs.
In this study, researchers will use a randomized controlled trial involving all government and private vocational institutes throughout the state to estimate the impact of the drug prevention program on beliefs about drug use, academic performance, labor market outcomes, and drug use behavior.

Results and Policy Lessons

Results forthcoming. Results from this evaluation will help inform whether the drug prevention program will be incorporated into the formal curriculum in vocational institutes throughout Punjab.