<p>The staff manning the tobacco quitline at Nimhans are swamped by calls every day. That means thousands of smokers are taking the effort to call the toll-free number (1800 11 2356) and seeking help.</p>.<p>About 80 counsellors, working throughout India, get between 5,000 and 12,000 calls a day. Since a counsellor spends 25-30 minutes on a call, only about 400 calls can be answered, says Sudarshan Hegde, supervisor, National Tobacco QuitLine Services (NTQLS), Nimhans, Bengaluru.</p>.<p>Nimhans has 18-20 counsellors working at the helpline. “We get about 2,000 IVR hits in a day. We are only able to answer 250-300 calls and make 200-250 outbound (follow-up) calls,” he says.</p>.<p>Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is an automated telephony system that gathers information from callers and routes calls to the appropriate section.</p>.<p>Sudarshan says the counsellor strength in Bengaluru will go up by 10 per cent soon. “There were some technical glitches we needed to sort out,” he says.</p>.<p>The national quitline works from multiple centres. The Delhi centre gets 5,000-10,000 calls a day, he says. “We need 10 times the present number of counsellors to attend to all calls,” he says.</p>.<p>India spends about 1.15 per cent of its GDP on health—one of the lowest proportions in the world. Funds allocated for de-addiction is 0.1-0.2 per cent of the allocation.</p>.<p>“We will ask for more funds in the next budget and also request the Centre for more counsellors,” says Hegde.</p>.<p>The quitline is directly controlled by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in Delhi.</p>.<p><br /><span><strong>When did it start?</strong></span></p>.<p>In Delhi, the quitline has been working for two years and a half. Other centres began functioning in September 2018. Mumbai is the latest: it started functioning a week ago.</p>.<p><span><strong>Awareness handle</strong></span></p>.<p>The tobacco quitline now has a Twitter handle (@NTQLNimhans) to create awareness through hashtag campaigns.</p>
<p>The staff manning the tobacco quitline at Nimhans are swamped by calls every day. That means thousands of smokers are taking the effort to call the toll-free number (1800 11 2356) and seeking help.</p>.<p>About 80 counsellors, working throughout India, get between 5,000 and 12,000 calls a day. Since a counsellor spends 25-30 minutes on a call, only about 400 calls can be answered, says Sudarshan Hegde, supervisor, National Tobacco QuitLine Services (NTQLS), Nimhans, Bengaluru.</p>.<p>Nimhans has 18-20 counsellors working at the helpline. “We get about 2,000 IVR hits in a day. We are only able to answer 250-300 calls and make 200-250 outbound (follow-up) calls,” he says.</p>.<p>Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is an automated telephony system that gathers information from callers and routes calls to the appropriate section.</p>.<p>Sudarshan says the counsellor strength in Bengaluru will go up by 10 per cent soon. “There were some technical glitches we needed to sort out,” he says.</p>.<p>The national quitline works from multiple centres. The Delhi centre gets 5,000-10,000 calls a day, he says. “We need 10 times the present number of counsellors to attend to all calls,” he says.</p>.<p>India spends about 1.15 per cent of its GDP on health—one of the lowest proportions in the world. Funds allocated for de-addiction is 0.1-0.2 per cent of the allocation.</p>.<p>“We will ask for more funds in the next budget and also request the Centre for more counsellors,” says Hegde.</p>.<p>The quitline is directly controlled by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in Delhi.</p>.<p><br /><span><strong>When did it start?</strong></span></p>.<p>In Delhi, the quitline has been working for two years and a half. Other centres began functioning in September 2018. Mumbai is the latest: it started functioning a week ago.</p>.<p><span><strong>Awareness handle</strong></span></p>.<p>The tobacco quitline now has a Twitter handle (@NTQLNimhans) to create awareness through hashtag campaigns.</p>
