It’s not an easy task to face up to tobacco control, feels the health minister JP Nadda. Calling tobacco control “formidable”, he stated that a multipronged approach was desired to deal with dreaded diseases like cancer, and to stop children from developing an addiction to substance abuse.
Health Minister JP Nadda addressed the seventh Conference of Parties (COP7) for WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), the global anti-tobacco conference and stated there that, “We cannot do this alone. Along with national will and resources, we also need the strength of international collaboration to mitigate the rising burden of health, social and economic costs of tobacco.” Nearly 1500 delegates from about 80 countries were a part of this agenda.
He stated that there was a huge economic burden that the people had to deal with because of the use of tobacco and this needs to be taken care of. Insisting on the prevention and control of tobacco usage he insisted “We have a long way to go in terms of preventing the million deaths caused by tobacco, both in India and other parts of the world.”
There is a huge concern in our country because of the increasing mortality and morbidity rate because of the high tobacco use in India. Almost 275 million people are said to use tobacco and reports have confirmed a million deaths because of tobacco consumption.
Nearly $22 million are spend on health care treatments for tobacco users according to Nadda, who stated that it a 30% reduction of tobacco usage was imperative to reduce the economic and health drain. It was necessary to educate the youngsters and children, regarding use of tobacco, as its consumption is on the high, in developing countries like India.
Almost 5500 youngsters start using tobacco daily in India and nearly 16% of graduates are hooked onto tobacco. Tobacco awareness drive in schools, increase in taxes and pictorial warnings have not stopped the people from depending on tobacco. This forced Nadda to comment that, “The challenges faced by India in the realm of tobacco control are formidable, both in their number and in their complexity. However, despite our vast complexity, substantial investments for implementation of WHO-FCTC are slowly improving the situation.”
