Skip to main content

"Failure" of a Modi campaign: 51% Gujarat men tobacco addicts, higher than 14 states

A tobacco retail shop in a Gujarat town
While the Gujarat government may claim to have decided to begin a “tobacco free Gujarat” campaign in 2011 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the state chief minister, yet, latest available data suggest that as many as 51.4 per cent of men and seven per cent of women in the state use any form of tobacco – it can be smoking cigarettes, bidis, cigars pipes, or hookas, chewing pan masalas with or without tobacco, use of gutkha or pan masala with tobacco, or use of khaini or snuff.
What is worse, data show, while the percentage of those using tobacco has come down, Gujarat has faltered in the fight against tobacco vis-à-vis other states. However, compared to other states, the effort to free its population from tobacco addiction has clearly not been as effective.
Indeed, the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data for 2015-16, released a year ago, suggest that 51 per cent of men and seven per cent of women in the age group 15-49 “use some form of tobacco”, which is the seventh highest among 21 major Indian states. However, while a decade earlier, the percentage of men using tobacco was higher (60.2 per cent), NFHS data for 2005-06 show, Gujarat placed the nine highest among major Indian states.
Similarly, if in 2005-06, Gujarat had the ninth highest percentage of women using tobacco, the state has “improved” its position to seventh a decade later, despite the fact that fewer percentage of females “use” tobacco now. If in 2005-06, 8.4 women were addicted to tobacco in some form, in 2015-16 it is down to 7.6 per cent.
Referring to Gujarat, the NFHS report for 2015-6 says, “Men are much more likely to use gutkha or paan masala with tobacco (34%) than to use other types of tobacco.”
It adds, “Among men, the use of any form of tobacco is higher in rural areas than in urban areas with gutkha or paan masala with tobacco, followed by bidis, being especially popular in rural areas. Half of the men who smoke cigarettes or bidis smoked 10 or more cigarettes or bidis in the past 24 hours.”
Making an almost similar observation, the NFHS report for 2005-06 says, “Women and men who use tobacco are most likely to chew tobacco in the form of paan masala, gutkha, or other tobacco. Among men who use tobacco, smoking cigarettes or bidis is also quite common. Tobacco use is more common in rural areas than in urban areas.”
The six states where a higher proportion men are using tobacco than Gujarat (51.4 per cent), as of 2015-16, are: Assam 63.9 per cent, Madhya Pradesh 59.5 per cent, West Bengal 58.8 per cent, Odisha 55.9, Chhattisgarh 55.2, and Uttar Pradesh 53 per cent.
A decade earlier, the nine states where a higher percentage of men used tobacco Gujarat (60.2 per cent) were: Assam 72.4 per cent, West Bengal 70.2 per cent, Odisha 68.8 per cent, Chhattisgarh 68.6 per cent, Madhya Pradesh 68.5 per cent, Bihar 66.5 per cent, Uttar Pradesh, 64.3 per cent, Jharkhand 61.7 per cent, and Rajasthan 60.4 per cent.
Similarly, as for women, Gujarat’s 7.4 per cent of women are found to have used tobacco in 2015-16, as against a higher percentage of six other states: Chhattisgarh 21.6 per cent, Assam 19.7 per cent, Odisha 17.3 per cent, Madhya Pradesh 10.4 per cent, West Bengal 8.7 per cent, and Uttar Pradesh 7.6 per cent.
In 2005-06, Gujarat’s 8.4 per cent women used tobacco, and the nine states with a higher percentage of women using tobacco were: Odisha 31.4 per cent, Chhattisgarh 25.2 per cent, Assam 23.2 per cent, Madhya Pradesh 16 per cent, West Bengal 15.6 per cent, Uttar Pradesh 12.1 per cent, Jharkhand 11.6 per cent, and Maharashtra 10.5 per cent.
What is of equal significance is, the percentage of men and women using tobacco in Gujarat is much higher than the all-India average. Thus, In 2015-16, the gap was about six per cent for men: In Gujarat, 51.4 per cent men used tobacco, as against the all-India average of 44.8 per cent. 
As for women, thought the gap is less than one per cent (Gujarat 7.4 per cent, as against India 6.8 per cent), what is of no less significant is, Gujarat women’s average was 8.4 per cent, lower than the national average (10.8 per cent).
There is also a rural-urban difference in the use of tobacco. Thus, if in 2015-16, 5.2 per cent urban women use “any form of tobacco”, in rural areas it is 9.1 per cent. Things are not very different for men: 46 per cent men in urban areas as against 56.2 per cent in rural areas.
The situation has failed to improve via-a-vis the country as a whole the state government decided to form five mobile flying squads with mobile vans, consisting of a police inspector and a health functionary, to take action against the use of tobacco in spots near places where the consumption of tobacco is prohibited, such as schools, educational institutions, public places, etc.
While money might have been spent on campaigns to make Gujarat tobacco free, NGOs say, the campaign has been ineffective and confined itself to exhorting people on formal occasions for this and not proceed with the required commitment.

Comments

TRENDING

Breaking news? Top Hindu builder ties up with Muslim investor for a huge minority housing society in Ahmedabad

There is a flutter in Ahmedabad's Vejalpur area, derogatorily referred to as the "border" because, on its eastern side, there is a sprawling minority area called Juhapura, where around five lakh Muslims live. The segregation is so stark that virtually no Muslim lives in Vejalpur, populated by around four lakh Hindus, and no Hindu lives in Juhapura.

60 crore in Mahakumbh? It's all hype with an eye on UP polls, asserts keen BJP supporter in Amit Shah's constituency

As the Mahakumbh drew to a close, during my daily walk, I met a veteran BJP supporter—a neighbor with whom we would often share dinner in a group. An amicable person, the first thing he asked me, as he was about to take the lift to his flat, was, "How many people do you think must have participated in the holy dip?" He then stopped by to talk—which we did for a full half-hour, cutting into my walk time.

Caste, class, and Patidar agitation: Veteran academic 'unearths' Gujarat’s social history

Recently, I was talking with a veteran Gujarat-based academic who is the author of several books, including "Social Movements in India: A Review of Literature", "Untouchability in Rural India", "Public Health and Urban Development: The Study of Surat Plague", and "Dalit Identity and Politics", apart from many erudite articles and papers in research and popular journals.

An untold story? Still elusive: Gujarati language studies on social history of Gujarat's caste and class evolution

This is a follow-up to my earlier blog , where I mentioned that veteran scholar Prof. Ghanshyam Shah has just completed a book for publication on a topic no academic seems to have dealt with—caste and class relations in Gujarat’s social history. He forwarded me a chapter of the book, published as an "Economic & Political Weekly" article last year, which deals with the 2015 Patidar agitation in the context of how this now-powerful caste originated in the Middle Ages and how it has evolved in the post-independence era.

A conman, a demolition man: How 'prominent' scribes are defending Pritish Nandy

How to defend Pritish Nandy? That’s the big question some of his so-called fans seem to ponder, especially amidst sharp criticism of his alleged insensitivity during his journalistic career. One such incident involved the theft and publication of the birth certificate of Masaba Gupta, daughter of actor Neena Gupta, in the Illustrated Weekly of India, which Nandy was editing at the time. He reportedly did this to uncover the identity of Masaba’s father.

New York-based digital company traces Modi's meteoric rise to global Hindutva ecosystem over several decades

A recent document, released by the Polis Project Inc.—a New York-based digital magazine and hybrid research and journalism organization—even as seeking to highlight the alleged rise of authoritarianism in India, has sought to trace Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meteoric rise since 2014 to the ever-expanding global Hindutva ecosystem over the last several decades.

Behind the scene? Ex-IAS, now Modi man in Yogi Cabinet, who lined up Mahakumbh VVIP comforts for Gujarat colleagues

The other day, I was talking to a senior IAS official about whether he or his colleagues had traveled to the recently concluded Mahakumbh in Allahabad, which was renamed Prayagraj by UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath as part of his intense Hindutva drive. He refused to reveal any names but said he had not gone there "despite arrangements for Gujarat cadre IAS officials" at the Mahakumbh VVIP site. "The water is too dirty—why take the risk?" he asked.

Socialist utopia challenging feudal and Brahminical systems: Kanwal Bharti on Sant Raidas’ vision of Begumpura

In a controversial claim, well-known Dalit writer and columnist Kanwal Bharti has asserted that a clever Brahminical move appears to be behind the Guru Granth Sahib changing the name of the 15th-16th century mystic poet-saint of the Bhakti movement, Sant Raidas, to Sant Ravidas.

What's wrong with those seeking to promote Sanskrit? An ex-Hindi professor has the answer

Ajay Tiwari  I have always wondered why certain elite sections are so fascinated by Sanskrit, to the extent of even practicing speaking a language that, for all practical purposes, isn’t alive. During my Times of India stint in Gandhinagar, the Gujarat state capital, I personally witnessed an IAS bureaucrat, Bhagyesh Jha, trying to converse with a friend in Sanskrit.