Recognising its efforts in controlling tobacco consumption, theWorld Health Organization(WHO) has selectedJharkhandfor theWorld No Tobacco Day(WNTD) Award-2022.
Stata Tobacco Control Cell of the Health Department will receive the award on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day in New Delhi on May 31, Jharkhand’s nodal officer of National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP)Lalit Ranjan Pathaksaid. Its a great achievement for Jharkhand, which could be possible only due to political and administrative supports that tobacco control cell has got in implementing the programme, Pathak said.
NTCP was launched in Jharkhand in 2012 when the tobacco prevalence rate in the state was 51.1 per cent, of which 48 per cent were smokeless users, according to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS)-1 report.
The GATS-2 report, which was published in 2018, said tobacco users came down to 38.9 per cent in the state, of which 35.4 per cent were smokeless users.