Tobacco is the only consumer product that kills half its users yearly. The challenges posed by tobacco control are limitless especially in a country like India where in addition to smoked forms, other smokeless forms of tobacco are also highly prevalent. Apart from being a health hazard tobacco is also a great environmental hazard. Policies for controlling tobacco use also include policy to prevent people from second hand smoke, which is aimed at improvement of air quality. According to the National Non-Communicable Disease Monitoring Survey, 2017-18, daily tobacco use was 32.8% in adults (18-69 years) and 3.1% in adolescents (15-17 years). Overall reduction in tobacco users by 8.1 Million was seen from GATS-1 to GATS-2, and prevalence amongst youth decreased from 18.4 to 12.4%. GYTS-4 (2019) revealed that 8.5% of students, 9.6% of boys and 7.4% of girls-currently used any tobacco products. This makes tobacco control a priority in India. Tobacco control consists of different approaches such as educational, healthcare, legislative, regulatory and fiscal. In the present article we traverse nearly five decades and decode the evolution of legislative, regulatory and fiscal approaches to Tobacco Control in India. A critical evaluation of all these approaches is described in the format of the MPOWER strategy for Tobacco Control which stands for Monitoring Tobacco use, Preventing people from Second Hand Smoke, Offering help to quit, Waring regarding ill effects of tobacco, Enforcing bans and Raising taxes on tobacco products.
Keywords: environmental health; health policy; second hand smoke; tobacco control.
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