Doping is now a deep-rooted culture in Indian Sports

Why in News?

At least 13 Indian athletes have reportedly tested positive for prohibited substances ahead of the 2026 Commonwealth and Asian Games. 

The concern extends beyond individual cases. In 2026, the Athletics Integrity Unit moved the Athletics Federation of India from Category B to Category A (the highest doping-risk category), triggering stricter anti-doping requirements.

What is Doping?

• Under the World Anti-Doping Code, doping means the occurrence of one or more anti-doping rule violations (ADRVs). It extends beyond consuming performance-enhancing drugs.
• Violations include:
  • Presence, use or attempted use of prohibited substances or methods.
  • Evading or unjustifiably refusing sample collection.
  • Specified whereabouts failures by athletes in registered testing pools.
  • Tampering with the doping-control process.
  • Prohibited possession, trafficking or administration.
  • Complicity, prohibited association and retaliation against those reporting misconduct.

What are WADA and NADA?

World Anti-Doping Agency: 

• Established in 1999, following the Lausanne World Conference on Doping in Sport.
• An independent international foundation headquartered in Montreal, Canada, with its legal seat in Lausanne.
• Composed and funded equally by the sports movement and governments.
• Develops the World Anti-Doping Code, publishes the Prohibited List, accredits laboratories and monitors compliance.
• Supports research, investigations and education. It is not a UN agency.

The UNESCO International Convention against Doping in Sport, 2005 provides the intergovernmental treaty framework; the WADA Code harmonises sporting rules. 

National Anti-Doping Agency:

• Established as a registered society in 2005.
• NADA implements India’s anti-doping programme. Its responsibilities include testing, results management, intelligence and investigations, education and coordination with sporting bodies.
• NADA administers doping control; laboratories such as the National Dope Testing Laboratory analyse samples. Disciplinary and appeal bodies determine contested violations and consequences.

National Anti-Doping (Amendment) Act, 2025: Key provisions

• Operational independence: Expressly protects NADA’s Director General and staff from operational interference by sports federations, Olympic/Paralympic committees and government departments or agencies responsible for sport or anti-doping.
• Greater adjudicatory autonomy: The National Board’s power to direct or seek operational information from disciplinary and appeal panels is removed.
• Laboratory standards: Recognised testing laboratories must obtain and maintain WADA accreditation.
• Procedural safeguards: Relevant Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUEs) and possible departures from testing or laboratory standards must be examined when assessing adverse findings.
• Appeal mechanism: Specified cases can be taken to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), including direct appeals in international-level matters.

Why does doping persist in India?

• Performance pressure and high rewards: Short sporting careers, intense selection competition, sponsorships, government jobs and financial rewards associated with medals can create incentives to seek rapid performance gains.
• Coach-athlete power imbalance: Young athletes often depend heavily on coaches and support personnel for selection, training, accommodation, nutrition and medical advice, creating scope for coercion or uninformed use of prohibited substances.
• Easy access to performance-enhancing substances: Online markets, informal gym networks and illicit pharmaceutical channels can facilitate access to prohibited drugs. This makes anti-doping a public-health and supply-chain enforcement issue, not merely a sporting issue.
• Supplement contamination: Nutritional supplements marketed as natural or herbal may contain undeclared prohibited substances. Athletes therefore require better medical and nutritional guidance and stronger quality-control mechanisms.
• Gaps in year-round testing: Testing that is concentrated around major competitions may fail to deter doping during training periods. Unpredictable, intelligence-led and out-of-competition testing is essential.
• Normalisation of doping: If athletes believe that competitors are doping without being detected, clean sport can appear to place them at a disadvantage. This creates a collective-action problem, where individual incentives undermine the integrity of the entire sporting system.

Way Forward: 

India needs to shift from a punishment-centric model to an integrity-and-prevention approach.

• Strengthen NADA’s functional independence through transparent appointments, adequate funding and specialised investigative capacity.
• Expand year-round, intelligence-led testing, particularly out-of-competition testing and targeted testing based on risk indicators.
• Regulate the supply chain by strengthening surveillance of online sellers, pharmaceutical diversion and illicit performance-enhancing drug markets.
• Institutionalise athlete education on prohibited substances, supplements, TUEs and strict-liability rules from the junior level itself.
• Hold support personnel accountable, particularly coaches, doctors and handlers who facilitate or conceal doping.
• Improve supplement quality assurance and provide athletes with verified nutritional guidance.
• Ensure speedy and fair adjudication while protecting due process and athletes’ right to appeal.
• Promote an ethical sporting culture where medals are treated as an outcome of legitimate training rather than an end that justifies prohibited means.

Doping is simultaneously an ethical, governance, scientific and athlete-welfare challenge. A credible Indian sporting system must ensure success through fair competition, informed athletes, accountable support personnel and independent institutions.

UPSC Practice MCQ

Q. With reference to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), consider the following statements:

1. WADA was established in 1999 following the World Conference on Doping in Sport.
2. It is a specialised agency of the United Nations.
3. The World Anti-Doping Code provides a harmonised framework for anti-doping rules across sports and countries.
4. WADA accredits laboratories that conduct anti-doping sample analysis.

Which of the statements given above are correct?

a) 1 and 2 only

b) 1, 3 and 4 only

c) 2, 3 and 4 only

d) 1, 2, 3 and 4

Answer: (b) 1, 3 and 4 only

Mains Practice Question: GS-IV

Q. An athlete’s coach recommends an unverified supplement and implies that refusal could affect selection. Identify the ethical issues and suggest an appropriate course of action.