THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH & FAMILY WELFARE ( SMT. PANABAKA LAKSHMI)
(a): The World Health Organization and Centre for Disease Control (CDC),Atlanta, USA sponsored `India Global Youth Tobacco Survey(GYTS), 2000-04`, which has been conducted in all States in India.
(b): Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, in collaboration with the World Health Organization and Centres for Disease Control (CDC), released the findings in a Report entitled `Tobacco Control in India, 2004` which has been widely disseminated.
(c): The major findings of the survey areas under:-
- Tobacco is used by the youth all over India with a wide range of variation among states.
- Two in every ten boys and one in every ten girls use some tobacco product.
- There is no statistical difference in rural-urban current tobacco use among students aged 13-15 years.
- Early initiating before the age of 10 years is increasing.
- States having higher levels of curricular teaching have a low prevalence of tobacco use by students.
(d): The Government of India has implemented `The Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of advertisement and Regulation of Trade & Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act and has initiated IEC campaigns to raise public awareness about the dangers of smoking and tobacco use as well as dangers of second hand smoke. Some State Governments have also developed tobacco control programme in schools based on the findings of their respective state survey reports.