Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh have recorded the highest prevalence of tobacco consumption among children at 57.9 % in each state, followed byNagaland(42.6%), Meghalaya (33.6%) and Sikkim (24.8%), revealed theGlobal Youth Tobacco Survey(GYTS)-2019 for India, released by the Union health minister.

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According to the survey, the current use of smoking tobacco has declined from 8.1% in 2003 to 7.3% in 2019 in the country. Significantly, smokeless tobacco consumption, too, has declined from 14% in 2003 to 4.1% in 2019. But even as the national Average for tobacco consumption in the age group of 13-15 years is about 8.5% for any type of tobacco use in India, the northeastern states presented a gloomy picture.

Despite being in a better

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position with 11.9% tobacco consumption in the surveyed age group, Assam is also above the national average for both smoking and smokeless tobacco. Uttar Pradesh at 22.9% and Uttarakhand at 18.5% are ahead of Assam. The lowest prevalence of tobacco consumption in the same age group was found in Himachal Pradesh (1.1%), Karnataka (1.2%), Goa (2.4%) and Kerala (3.2%).