New Delhi, 31 May 2021: Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister, has been conferred the WHO Director-General’s Special Recognition Award for his invaluable leadership in accelerating tobacco control efforts in India.
Dr Harsh Vardhan received the award for spearheading the Government of India’s legislation to ban e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products in 2019.
“Tobacco-free homes and tobacco-free society continue to remain important personal missions in my life, both of which I have been working towards since the last three decades,” the health minister said in a tweet on World No Tobacco Day.
Dr Harsh Vardhan is a pioneer in advocating tobacco control and was awarded the WHO DG’s commendation award for working towards a tobacco-free society in 1998 and has continued taking action to protect the population from getting addicted to tobacco.
Every year, WHO recognizes individuals or organizations in each of the six WHO Regions for their accomplishments in the area of tobacco control. The two other awardees from India were State Tobacco Control Cell, Uttar Pradesh, and Madhya Pradesh Voluntary Health Association.
India has set a goal of reducing tobacco use by 30% by 2025. The prevalence of tobacco use has declined by six percentage points from 34.6% in 2009-10 to 28.6% in 2016-17, according to the Second Global Adult Tobacco Survey. Under the National Health Mission 2017, the tobacco control goals are aligned with the targets for control of non-communicable diseases and sustainable development goals (SDGs).
The theme of this year’s World No Tobacco Day – ‘Commit to Quit’ urged people to quit tobacco to reduce the risk of severe COVID-19. The goal of the campaign is to help 100 million people quit tobacco through various initiatives and digital tools. WHO medical officers across the country organized awareness campaigns, youth engagement, training health workers, and supporting people who want to quit tobacco.
India’s commitment and drive are catalyzing real change in a country that is the world’s second-largest consumer of tobacco products after China. Tobacco kills half of its users prematurely in their most productive age group and it impacts the economy at large. As per a WHO study titled “Economic Costs of Diseases and Deaths Attributable to Tobacco Use in India” it has been estimated that the economic burden of diseases and deaths attributable to tobacco use in India was as high as USD 27.5 billion (Rs 1,773.4 billion), amounting to approximately 1% of GDP.