Around 0.6 million children smoke cigarettes daily

India is home to an estimated 625,000 children who smoke aged 10 to 14-years-old, despite lowering tobacco usage recently, according to Global Tobacco Atlas data released last week.

More than 932,600 Indian lives are claimed by tobacco-related diseases every year which eventually claims 17,887 lives, according to the study.

The smoking leads to the economic cost to Rs 1,818,691 million in India. This includes both direct cost of healthcare and the indirect cost of lost productivity from early death and illness.

More than 429,500 boys and 195,500 girls have been found taking puffs daily in India.

Males are leading to the race of smoking cigarettes than women, with numbers standing at 90 million and 13 million, respectively.

Another 171 million people pursue smokeless tobacco, which causes mouth diseases and throat cancers.



“There is still a lot that needs to be done to curb the use of tobacco that is one of the leading causes of cardio-vascular diseases, stroke, pulmonary diseases and certain types of cancers,” says Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, senior cancer surgeon, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai.

In 2016, an estimated 82.12 billion cigarettes were produced in India.

USD 346 billion was the combined revenue of the world’s six largest tobacco companies in 2016, which is equal to 15% of the gross national income of India.

“The industry is a powerful force that does not fear actions of smaller nation-states because of their extensive resources and global market power. Larger economies and nations have the opportunity to help the smaller allies face down this threat,” the report stated.

This article originally appeared on Hindustan Times