Tobacco use in India: It’s a cultural practice

According to a study, almost 70 per cent of the tobacco consumed in India is totally outside the tax net and a bulk of it is not even packaged.

Tobacco appears to be as old as human civilisation. In India, it was introduced in the 17th century by the Portuguese. In 1776, the British East India Company began growing tobacco as a cash crop and used it for both domestic consumption and foreign trade.

In India, 0.24 per cent of its arable land (4.93 lakh hectares) is used for tobacco cultivation. Referred to as “golden leaf”, tobacco is one of the important commercial crops of India. Ten distinct types of tobacco are grown and produced in 15 states of India. These include cigarette (such as FCV, Burley, Oriental) and non-cigarette types (such as bidi, hookah, natu, cheroot, cigar, etc). It is an important part of the socio-cultural milieu in various societies, especially in the eastern, northern and north-eastern parts of India.

Though perceived to be an individual habit, tobacco use often acquires a ritualistic character involving group behaviour. This is particularly true for our country in both the rural and urban settings. An emphatic example of the ritual aspect of tobacco consumption would be the use of the hookah. The habit of rural north Indian men, usually assembled in caste-based or social-class based groups, to share a hookah in daily gatherings is a common example of fellowship, solidarity and a consultative process. Therefore, there are multitudes of social and cultural practices which also need to be recognised to comprehend the use of tobacco across social, religious and ethnic sub-groups. This tapestry of international linkages, economic factors and cultural influences have a considerable bearing on the history of tobacco in India.

Tobacco is a resilient crop and is largely grown in the semi-arid and rain-fed areas of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat and Karnataka. It has been observed that tobacco cultivation pays better when compared to other crops available for cultivation in these areas. It occupies a unique position in India as, unlike many top tobacco producing and exporting countries, it provides employment to 4.6 crore people comprising farm labourers, farmers, traders, rural women and tribals.

Unlike the West, tobacco consumption in India is unique. Here the bulk is consumed in the form of hookah, bidi, khaini, cheroot, natu among others. Interestingly, 68 per cent of the tobacco consumed in India is totally outside the tax net and a bulk of it is not even packaged as per a study carried out by ASSOCHAM. Internationally, 99 per cent tobacco consumption is in the form of cigarettes. In India, the per capita consumption of cigarettes is just 96 which is perhaps the lowest in the world and continues to remain under regulatory overreach. This is totally counterproductive from the health or the revenue objective.

Recently, anti-tobacco activists raised a hue and cry for 85 per cent pictorial warning on tobacco packs citing the example of countries like Australia (82.5 per cent), Uruguay (80 per cent) and Canada (75 per cent). But they fail to mention that none of them have a significant size of population dependent on tobacco for sustenance when compared to India. It is important to mention that the top five tobacco producing countries, comprising a significant portion of the world’s population, have an average warning size of only 20 per cent. Strangely, America has not even ratified the framework convention on tobacco control which gives guidelines for tobacco control regulation worldwide. The number one cigarette company of the world resides in the US and, interestingly, American courts have termed pictorial warnings to be unreasonable.

India is one of the very few countries which have strong domestic tobacco brands and this has always been a major irritant for foreign entities. They have resorted to some means or the other to destabilise this harmony. One of the most potent weapons deployed are NGO’s whose sole agenda is to make baseless, exaggerated and unscientific statements against the tobacco industry. These NGO’s conduct cohort studies based on a small sample-size to misguide the policymakers and the general public. This has damaged the industry’s reputation and accelerated the presence of illicit, contraband and smuggled cigarettes in the Indian market. The government is also losing precious money which is why this conspiracy needs to be exposed. Therefore, the bottom line is that tobacco holds socio-economic significance in the Indian context. Efforts to deter tobacco consumption should involve a well-rounded strategy focused on rural and unpackaged consumption.

The writer is director, Thought Arbitrage Research Institute.