Strong policies helped reduce Karnataka's tobacco use: Study

Strong tobacco control policies and civil society action have played a major role in reducing tobacco use in Karnataka despite high interference from the state’s tobacco industry, preliminary findings from a study from the Institute of Public Health (IPH) show.

The researchers looked at states’ change in tobacco use over time, based on National Sample Survey reports between 1987 and 2012. They zeroed in on 10 states with varying levels of change in use. Karnataka, a well-performing state, had reduced its household level tobacco use from 63 to 43.6 per cent over this period.

The study then looked at four macro indicators between 1990 and 2017 at the state level — tobacco control policies, tobacco industry interference, civil society action and political regime — to understand how these affected tobacco use.

In terms of tobacco control policies, Karnataka ranked among the top three states, along with Gujarat and Goa. Three other states — Meghalaya, Nagaland and Haryana — were in the bottom rung.

Karnataka’s high ranking was because of its high taxation of tobacco products, restricting tobacco products much ahead of national laws, and higher fund utilisation for the National Tobacco Control Programme. The state also ranked third in terms of tobacco control statements made by government representatives. While Kerala came first with 464 points for this, Karnataka scored 301 points.

In terms of the indicator of civil society action against tobacco, evaluated based on media reports, Karnataka was the only state in the top rung.

However, Karnataka’s score for tobacco industry’s interference in policy-making was a steep 466 points, while all other states scored below 150. The high score was largely contributed by one sub-indicator ‘Benefits the government extended to tobacco industry’, such as incentives and tax exemption. For example, while VAT was not levied on beedi, the Sadananda Gowda government’s proposal to introduce 5% VAT had been quickly withdrawn after industry backlash.

“The high industry interference score could be because of Karnataka being a tobacco cultivation and manufacturing hub,” says Dr Upendra Bhojani, principal investigator for the study.

Karnataka implemented a policy to prevent industry interference in 2019, and the Union Health Ministry adopted a code of conduct to prevent interference in 2020. These are welcome moves, but a policy is needed at the national level since several aspects of the industry are regulated by the Centre, says Dr Bhojani.