SK Arora wins WHO World No Tobacco Day 2017 Award

SK Arora, the Delhi government’s additional director of health, has been honoured with the 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, on August 16, 2018. It is awarded every year by WHO to individuals or organizations alike in each of six WHO regions for their accomplishments in the area of tobacco control. The National Health Policy 2017 of the Government of India (GoI) has set targets of relative reduction in tobacco prevalence by 15% by 2020 and 30% by 2025. Delhi has already achieved these targets before 2017. The Delhi government’s health department has been fighting against direct advertisement of brand promotion of tobacco and surrogate advertisement of tobaccos in the name of pan masala and other eatables such as tea, ilaichi (cardamom) for the past 4 years. According to Global Adult Tobacco Survey-2 (GATS 2, 2016-17), the prevalence of tobacco use has reduced by 27% in Delhi as compared to 17% for the rest of India average.