Smoking of cigarettes and bidis causes about 10 lakh deaths a year in India, and tobacco use is responsible for many deaths from cancer, tuberculosis, heart attack and stroke. Additionally, the majority of deaths from tobacco use occur during middle age, when people are in the most productive part of their lives.
Tobacco use imposes huge economic costs on the country, and burdens the country’s healthcare system with largely preventable diseases. Tobacco-related diseases also cost individual families, who must pay for costly health treatments, or who cannot work because of illness. Tobacco use is therefore one of the major reasons that millions of Indians fall into poverty each year, yet this can be avoided.
About one-third of Indian men now smoke, and the number of smokers is growing higher. To prevent further damage to our health and economy, we must act now to encourage people to quit smoking and to prevent our youth from starting to smoke. The most important step you can take for yourself and your family is to quit smoking if you smoke now. The most important step you can take to prevent tobacco-related deaths in your district is to support the appointment of a nodal officer for tobacco control. This website contains additional information and resources explaining these and other steps you can take to save lives in your district. They have been developed in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, India, and the Centre for Global Health Research (CGHR).
Please be a leader in the fight against tobacco in your district, to make sure its families are healthy and prosperous.