For the third consecutive year, India finished at the top of the global anti-doping charts not for excellence, but for violations.
According to the World Anti-Doping Agency, WADA data for 2024, India recorded 260 Adverse Analytical Findings (AAFs) from 7,113 samples, a positivity rate of 3.6 per cent, the highest among all major testing nations. Far from being a statistical anomaly, these numbers expose a deep-rooted structural problem in Indian sport that extends well beyond testing volumes or laboratory efficiency.
At face value, officials from the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) have attributed the high count to intensified testing. While it is true that India increased its sample collection compared to previous years, the global comparison is damning. China conducted over 24,000 tests in 2024 and returned just 43 positives. Germany tested more than double India’s volume and reported barely a fifth of the violations. Even the United States, often under scrutiny for elite-level doping, recorded a positivity rate of just 1.1 per cent .
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The most revealing aspect of India’s doping profile is where these positives are coming from. The bulk of violations originate within the domestic circuit state championships, university competitions, and national-level meets rather than elite international events. This is evident when contrasted with the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), which reported a global positivity rate of just 0.7 per cent across its worldwide testing pool.
In effect, Indian athletes competing under stricter international oversight are cleaner than those operating within the national system. That points not to a failure of detection, but to a failure of deterrence at home.
The NDTL factor
India’s National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL) in New Delhi further underscores the problem. In 2024, NDTL processed 7,651 samples and returned 268 positives a positivity rate of 3.65 per cent, the highest among all WADA-accredited laboratories globally . By comparison, the Cologne laboratory in Germany analyzed over 32,000 samples with just 170 positives, while Paris tested more than 26,000 samples for the same number of violations.
This does not suggest a flawed laboratory. Instead, it reflects the quality of the athlete pool being tested. NDTL functions as a regional hub for South Asia, but the overwhelming majority of positives are Indian athletes, reinforcing the domestic nature of the crisis.
Power, endurance, and disproportionate risk
Athletics once again topped the list in absolute numbers, with 76 positive cases. However, when sample size is accounted for, weightlifting and wrestling present an even more alarming picture. Weightlifting recorded a positivity rate of 6.5 per cent, while wrestling touched 7 per cent deeply concerning figures for two Olympic medal-focused disciplines .
Powerlifting emerged as the most compromised sport, with nearly one in three samples returning positive. Kabaddi, wushu and boxing also recorded higher-than-average failure rates, highlighting that doping is not confined to Olympic disciplines alone.
Substance-wise, the picture is equally troubling. Anabolic agents dominated, accounting for nearly three-quarters of all positives. Cheap, older-generation steroids such as stanozolol and methandienone remain widespread, particularly at junior and university levels. Endurance sports are now seeing a rise in EPO and related blood-boosting agents, indicating increasing sophistication among offenders.
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To understand why deterrence has failed, one must look beyond sport. For many Indian athletes, particularly from rural and economically weaker backgrounds, sport represents a rare pathway to stable employment. Government jobs, police recruitment, railway positions and cash rewards are often directly tied to podium finishes at national events.
In this environment, the risk-reward equation becomes skewed. A four-year ban is weighed against the possibility of lifelong financial security. For athletes with limited alternatives, that gamble often feels rational. Compounding the issue is poor sports science literacy. Many athletes consume supplements without verification, guided by informal networks rather than qualified professionals, blurring the line between accidental contamination and deliberate doping.
Olympic ambitions under scrutiny
India’s doping record now carries international consequences. With ambitions to host the 2030 Commonwealth Games and the 2036 Olympics, the International Olympic Committee has already flagged doping as a serious concern. A nation with persistently high violation rates faces credibility issues when bidding to host the world’s biggest sporting events.
In response, NADA has expanded education programmes, rolled out digital tools such as the Know Your Medicine app, and launched the NIDAMS testing management system. More than 37,000 stakeholders were sensitized in 2024 alone.
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Perhaps the most debated development is the reported dip in 2025. With testing numbers nearly matching 2024, positives reportedly fell to 110 a 1.5 per cent positivity rate. NADA attributes this to education and behavioral change. Critics remain cautious, pointing to possible shifts in testing strategy and the delayed notification of the National Anti-Doping Amendment Act.
Whether this decline marks genuine reform or statistical fluctuation will only become clear with sustained transparency and the adoption of newer tools such as Dried Blood Spot testing from 2026.
India’s doping crisis is not a failure of testing; it is a failure of structure. Until clean sport offers athletes the same security that medals currently do, shortcuts will remain tempting. The 2024 numbers are a warning.
What matters now is whether India treats them as embarrassment or as the catalyst for real, systemic change.
