S K Arora awarded WHO World No Tobacco Day 2017 Award

Delhi government’s additional director of health, SK Arora was awarded prestigious World Health Organization (WHO) World No Tobacco Day 2017 Award for his extraordinary contribution towards tobacco control. He was presented the award by Henk Bekedam, WHO India country head in New Delhi.

WHO World No Tobacco Day Award

It is awarded every year by WHO to individuals or organisations alike in each of six WHO regions for their accomplishments in the area of tobacco control. This awards includes WHO Director-General Special Recognition Awards, World No Tobacco Day Awards.  World No Tobacco Day is observed around the world every year on 31 May. It is intended to encourage 24-hour period of abstinence from all forms of tobacco consumption around the globe.

Tobacco prevalence in Delhi

Delhi government’s health department for the past four years has been fighting against direct advertisement of brand promotion of tobacco and surrogate advertisement of tobaccos in name of pan masala and other eatables such as tea, ilaichi (cardamom).
National Health Policy (NHP) 2017 of Central Government has set targets of relative reduction in tobacco prevalence by: 15% by 2020, 30 % by 2025. Delhi has already achieved these targets before 2017. Tobacco prevalence in Delhi has come down by 6.5% in the past six years which is more than rest of India average figures.
According to Global Adult Tobacco Survey-2 (GATS 2) 2016-17, prevalence of tobacco use has reduced by 27% in Delhi as compared to 17% for the rest of India average. Similarly, current tobacco smokers in Delhi have reduced by 35% as compared to 23% for the rest of India average. The current gutkha users have also significantly reduced by 63% in Delhi as compared to rest of India average figures of just 17%. For cessation modalities also Delhi has performed much better than rest of India average figures.