Introduction 

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Recently, the Athletics Integrity Unit’s global list of ineligible athletes put India at the top with 148 suspended athletes. Following this, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) has moved India to “Category A” which puts the country in the high-risk zone. The Chair of AIU, David Howman, while talking about India’s re-categorisation mentioned that “The doping situation in India has been high-risk for a long time and, unfortunately, the quality of the domestic anti-doping programme is simply not proportionate to the doping risk”. He also mentioned that “While Athletics Federation of India (AFI) has advocated for anti-doping reform within India, not enough has changed”. Last year, Indian athletes, for the third consecutive time, reported highest doping violations in the 2025 World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) report. This doping epidemic must not be understood only through the lens of sports governance failure, but as a serious violation of the ‘Right to Health’ enshrined under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution read with Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). In a sporting system, which is funded, regulated and promoted by the State, if athletes are resorting to performance-enhancing substances, then the State’s constitutional obligation extends beyond punishing the wrong-doer. It becomes imperative for the State to counter structural lapses that make doping pervasive. 

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Right to Health at the Core of Global Anti-Doping Norms

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The international sporting norms keep the health of athletes as a central point while developing systems to counter doping. The Preamble of WADA’s Athlete’s Anti-Doping Rights Act explicitly states that, “one of the purposes of WADA Code and the World Anti-Doping Program is to protect the athlete’s fundamental right to participate in doping-free sport and thus promote and protect health, fairness and equal opportunity for athletes worldwide”. Part one of the Act, which sets out rights that stems out of the WADA Code and WADA’s International Standards, under (3), states that “Athletes have the right to be free from any pressure that jeopardizes their health, be that physical or emotional, through doping”. In addition to this, the conditions laid down for a substance or method to make it to WADA’s Prohibited List, includes an actual or potential health risk to the athlete. This makes it significantly clear that WADA’s anti-doping regimes are not merely penned down to uphold sporting integrity, but also to safeguard an athlete’s health. 

 

India’s Implementation Crisis in Anti-Doping Efforts

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In order to maintain the highest standard of integrity in sports and to meet the obligations enshrined under the UNESCO’s International Convention against Doping in Sport, India enacted The National Anti-Doping Act in the year 2022. The Act gave statutory backing to the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) and the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL). The Act, through its amendment of 2025, aims to strengthen India’s anti-doping framework and align it with global standards set out by WADA. As much as this is a welcoming step, the ground realities speak otherwise. 

 

Apart from the AIU’s data and the 2025 WADA report mentioned above, the recently concluded 2025 Khelo India University Games in Rajasthan, highlighted deficient implementation of anti-doping framework in India. In the final events of women’s 400m and men’s 400m hurdles, only one athlete participated. For the men’s 400m final, two of the eight finalists participated. In some other events as well, more than half of the participants did not turn up to the final. This low turnout was attributed to the presence of NADA at the venue which hasn’t been a practice. The All India University (AIU) games, one of the leading sports events of the country, does not follow the anti-doping framework strictly and thus doping awareness amongst participating young athletes is scarce. In 2023, WADA’s Intelligence and Investigation (I&I) Department published its report on “Operation Carousel”. This investigation, launched in 2018, exposed NADA’s inadequate testing of athletes in the Registered Testing Pool (RTP) and lack of appropriate monitoring of athletes’ whereabout information. This pattern suggests that doping in Indian sports cannot be attributed to individual deviance but is a systemic pathology. Far from being reputational setbacks, the recurring doping violations of Indian athletes’ questions NADA’s breach of duty of care which directly impairs the fundamental Right to Health of any athlete. 

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Anti-Doping as a Constitutional Duty: Extending Article 21 to Athlete Welfare

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Under the Indian Constitution, fundamental rights can be claimed against the State and its instrumentalities. Article 12 defines the term “State” and covers the Central Government of India, Government of various states of India, all local authorities and other authorities. Through judicial interpretations, the term “instrumentalities” has been interpreted by the Supreme Court of India. In its landmark judgment of Ajay Hasia vs. Khalid Mujib (AIR 1981 SC 487), the Supreme Court laid down that if any body is financially, functionally and administratively controlled by the government, and if such control is deep and pervasive, such body will be considered as State under Article 12.  

 

An autonomous body, like NADA, also falls within the ambit of instrumentality as it functions under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. Its key job is to implement sophisticated anti-doping programmes in India and promote clean sports practices amongst our athletes. However, its repeated inability to effectively curb doping practices reflects a failure in discharging its core mandate. The gargantuan rise in doping incidents in India cues towards a serious health crisis for athletes that jeopardizes their Right to Health. In Vincent vs. Union of India (AIR 1987 SC 990), the Supreme Court of India held that, “a healthy body is the very foundation of all human activities”. It also emphasized that, “injurious drugs should be totally eliminated from the market and no scope for complacency in this field and constant and regular attention has to be bestowed in order that the flow into the market may be only of acceptable drugs.” The Court also mentioned Article 47 of the Constitution of India which stresses upon improvement of public health and prohibition of drugs injurious to health as one of the primary duties of the State.

The use of performance-enhancing substances has severe health consequences that hampers physiological and psychological health of an athlete. These can range from hormonal imbalance to permanent organ failure and compromises mental well-being of athletes. NADA has an obligation not just to implement the anti-doping laws and policy but also to create adequate awareness among athletes. Failing to do so is a breach of its constitutional duty violating an athletes fundamental Right to Health.  

 

A Call for Action: Aligning Sporting Ambitions with Athlete Welfare

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India’s aspiration to position itself as a global sporting powerhouse cannot sustain the existing domestic doping crisis. It reflects upon an inefficient regulatory framework which steers beyond reputational damage and arrives as a constitutional failure to safeguard athlete’s health. It is pertinent for India to set its priorities and focus towards strengthening its anti-doping framework. Urgent steps must be taken to upgrade testing infrastructure and monitoring mechanisms. An athlete-friendly anti-doping awareness program is the mandate of the hour. This means that NADA must ensure accessibility to their awareness drives in the language that athletes understand, which must not necessarily be English. Athletes in India come from diverse linguistic backgrounds, making comprehension a critical issue. NADA must curate multi-lingual initiatives to enhance awareness and compliance. This also provides an opportunity for the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India to think towards developing an athlete legal education programme, empowering athletes with fundamental knowledge of their rights and duties. Sans the reforms, India risks losing its standing in the internationalsporting ecosystem alongside failing in its innate fundamental duty to protect the health and future of its athletes.