Akal Drug De-Addiction Mission: North India’s Decisive Crusade Against Drugs

The Akal Drug De-Addiction Centres operate across Punjab and Himachal Pradesh, serving as pillars of hope for families devastated by drug addiction. Moved by the urgent need to save Punjab’s youth from slipping into the abyss of substance abuse, Late Padma Shri Sant Baba Iqbal Singh Ji, former President of The Kalgidhar Trust, Baru Sahib, Inspired Dr (Col) Rajinder Singh to establish a dedicated health service at Cheema Sahib, Sangrur in 2004. What began as an act of spiritual duty soon became Punjab’s largest NGO-run de-addiction facility, a fully functional 30-bedded holistic treatment centre, administered with discipline, compassion, and medical precision under the able leadership of Dr (Col) Rajinder Singh—one of its founding pillars.

In 2016, the mission extended to the hills of Himachal Pradesh with the establishment of the Akal Drug De-Addiction Centre at Baru Sahib, a groundbreaking initiative that introduced Himachal’s first NGO-run 50-bedded de-addiction hospital with a dedicated female inpatient ward (IPD). This centre addressed the unique addiction patterns of the region, particularly among women, and soon became the largest de-addiction facility run by any NGO in the state, offering safe, dignified, and value-based healing.

Together, the Cheema and Baru Sahib centres have become a formidable force in addiction prevention and treatment. They have conducted massive awareness campaigns, medical outreach programme, school interventions, and have earned two World Records and one

Limca Book Record for their unparalleled contribution to drug awareness. Dr (Col) Rajinder Singh has touched more than 50,000 lives since 2004, inclusive of thousands of families restored, futures rebuilt, and lives reclaimed.

Strengthening their outreach, the centres also operate the Wellness Wagon, a Mobile OPD that delivers psychiatric and addiction services directly to rural and border villages. Additionally, the Akal Tele-Counselling Services provide accessible emotional and psychological support, especially to the 70,000 children studying in 130 Akal Academies across North India, ensuring early detection, guidance, and preventive care at scale. The Cheema Centre also conducted India’s first and only international-level long-term follow-up impact study, scientifically proving the effectiveness of a spiritually integrated rehabilitation model—an achievement that placed the Akal mission on the global map of innovative addiction treatment.

At the heart of this movement stands Dr. (Col.) Rajinder Singh, whose life mirrors the spirit of Guru Nanak’s compassion. Running from pillar to post, he has served each patient not as a case file but as a soul deserving dignity and redemption. It is his unwavering commitment—rooted in seva, discipline, and boundless empathy—that transformed a vision into two of North India’s largest and most respected NGO-run de-addiction institutions.