India Again Talks of Cutting Tobacco Production

Source from:  Tobacco Reporter 10/21/2010

The Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare, Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, has said that while the livelihoods of Indian tobacco growers cannot be endangered, the country had to work towards moving growers and farm workers out of tobacco, according to a Government of India Press Information Bureau story. "We cannot indefinitely tolerate a public health hazard in the name of protecting livelihoods", the Minister said after yesterday releasing the report of the first Global Adult Tobacco Survey ‒ India 2010. Emphasizing the need for co-ordination of comprehensive tobacco control strategies, Azad spoke about collaborations with the Agriculture Ministry for a project on alternative crops and co-ordination with other stakeholder ministries. According to a Thaindian News story, however, Azad was more forthright in his comments, calling for a "jihad" against tobacco use. "A jihad is needed against tobacco to tell that consumption of tobacco is dangerous," Azad was quoted as saying. "The whole nation needs to come together against it." Enditem