Smoking in India
Smoking is legally allowed in India but there exist some specific restrictions. Under these regulations, cigarettes are permitted for sale and can be legally purchased online, while sales through vending machines are not permitted. The importation of cigarettes for trade is allowed with a license. Health warnings on cigarette packaging are required, the minimum legal age for purchase is 18 years, and there are legal restrictions on smoking in public places. Advertising of cigarettes is regulated, which bans all types of advertising. Cigarettes are subject to a specific excise value of 28.92% and a total taxation rate of 57.60%. The current prevalence of smoking among adults aged 15 years and older in Inida was reported to be 9.3% in 2024, reflecting an increase from 8.1% in 2020. The current smoking prevalence among adult males was significantly higher with 16.7% in 2024, compared to 1.4% among adult females that year. This gender disparity has been consistent, as in 2020, the prevalence among males was 14.4% and 1.40% among females. The total number of smokers in 2024 was approximately 100,2 million individuals, showing an increase from 80,481,112 in 2020. Smoking-related mortality remains a significant health concern in India, with 1,048,266 recorded deaths in 2021. This accounts for 8.92% of all deaths in the country. Of these deaths, 233,679 were female deaths, representing 4.59% of all female deaths, while 814,587 were male deaths, accounting for 12.23% of all male deaths. These data underscore the ongoing public health challenges posed by tobacco smoking in India, highlighting the necessity for effective public health measures to reduce smoking prevalence and its associated mortalities.
Read articles from India
November 27, 2020 by theswaddle.com
Why India’s Anti‑Smoking Laws Aren’t Working
“Glaring gaps” in India’s tobacco control legislation make it “ineffective for regulating tobacco consumption and exposure to second-hand smoke,” argues a new report.
The concern is not new. “Compared with many countries around the world, India has been proactive in introducing tobacco control legislation since 2003…. However, the legislation currently in place is not delivering the desired results — in terms of dissuading tobacco use and encouraging quitting,” Geoffrey Fong, a professor of psychology [...] told Reuters. Fong is the co-author of a 2015 report drawing urgent attention to India’s “tobacco epidemic.”
November 26, 2020 by filtermag.org
The Price of Silence: Women, Tobacco and Clinical Gaps in India
As I wait to interview respiratory physicians in a high-end private medical clinic in Chennai, a sprawling metropolis in the state of Tamil Nadu, southern India, I look around the outpatient setting and see few women clients.
After professional introductions, the women clinicians ask me what has become a standard question in my visits, as a public health researcher, to five private medical institutions in the city during the past four months.
“Why are you interested in doing this research?” [...]
November 25, 2020 by theprint.in
India’s Tobacco Control Act must be amended, should recognise WHO guidelines, says report
New Delhi: There are “glaring gaps” in the laws governing tobacco consumption, including the rampant sale of single stick cigarettes, says a report by the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) released Wednesday.
The 50-page report, which was submitted to the Ministry of Health, calls for an amendment in the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act (COTPA), 2003, and proposes several recommendations.
November 20, 2020 by thehindu.com
Poor demand for tobacco: Calls for govt. intervention too early, say experts
The poor demand for tobacco across auction platforms in the State may have led the Opposition Congress to make an appeal for immediate government intervention, but experts in the tobacco industry are hopeful of a turnaround in the demand for the commodity in the coming months.
More than a month after auctions started in Karnataka, the demand for tobacco has remained muted, raising concern among the farmers who are wary of COVID-19 dashing their hopes of making a decent earning.
November 02, 2020 by digitaljournal.com
Q&A: Does India's e-cigarette ban do more harm than good?
According to Samrat Chowdhery the impact of ban of e-cigarettes in India has been counter productive. With country already facing the healthcare burden the ban on harm reduction alternative has further deteriorated the situation. He explains why.
In 2019, India banned e-cigarettes. This was in the form executive order prohibits selling, producing, importing, or advertising e-cigarettes. With e-cigarettes there are advocates and detractors. Looking at things from the advocacy side is Samrat Chowdhery, who is the President of INNCO (International Network of Nicotine Consumer Organisations).
October 23, 2020 by filtermag.org
The Unfolding Tragedy of India’s Vape Prohibition
In September 2019, Nirmala Sitharaman, India’s finance minister, announced a ban on vaping products—an ordinance, passed months later by parliament, that would “prohibit the production, manufacture, import, export, transport, sale, distribution, storage, and advertisement of e-cigarettes.” It was unfortunate that “e-cigarettes got promoted initially as a way in which people can get out of the habit of smoking cigarettes,” Sitharaman stated after a cabinet meeting that fall. “It was to be a weaning process from using cigarettes.”
September 30, 2020 by indianexpress.com
Explained: Why Maharashtra is the latest state to ban sale of loose cigarettes, beedis
The Maharashtra government has banned the sale of loose cigarettes and beedis, in a bid to reduce the consumption of tobacco and to comply with the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) 2003. Before this, Chhattisgarh had banned the sale of loose cigarettes earlier this year, while Karnataka banned the sale of loose cigarettes, beedis and chewing tobacco in 2017. As per the Tobacco Free Union, over 1 million people die from tobacco-related diseases in India every year.
September 21, 2020 by freepressjournal.in
To ban or not to ban? Vapers urge Indian government to lift ban on e-cigarettes
On September 18, 2019, the Indian government banned e-cigarettes through the Prohibition of E-cigarettes Ordinance, 2019. Citing health risks associated with e-cigarettes, vaping devices as the reasons for enforcing the ban.
And, now, a year later, the Association of Vapers India (AVI), an organisation that represents e-cigarette users, has urged the Centre to lift the ban. While talking to The Free Press Journal, Samrat Chowdhery, Director, AVI, explained why the reasons behind their request. "There are a number of reasons, primarily from the health perspective, but also from the economic view. [...]
April 15, 2020 by thehindu.com
Smokers’ woes: some cut down on cigarettes, others turn to bidis
Some have been forced to cut back on their smoking, others have had to switch to bidis, the poor Indian’s smoke. And, it’s not easy to lay hands on what is an “essential commodity” for some. Some are willing to pay a premium to lay their hands on a packet of cigarettes.
“It’s good in a way; we are smoking less. But the way it has been done is just promoting black marketing. I started asking my roommate for help after I finished my own pack which I bought for ₹50 extra,” his roommate Ojas Khari (name changed) said.
February 24, 2020 by telegraphindia.com
Veil off doctors’ bid to stall e-cigarette ban
Dozens of doctors had joined coordinated and independent campaigns to stall the Narendra Modi government’s slow tilt towards a ban on electronic cigarettes legislated by Parliament in December 2019, public health experts have said.
The campaigns conducted through letters to experts who could influence policy, a “consensus statement” from doctors and press releases, although irrelevant now after the ban, showed how sections of the medical community had backed dubious commercial goals, the experts said.