India’s domestic cigarette consumption falls

Domestic cigarette consumption in India during the financial year 2014-15, at 93.2 billion, was down by 10 billion from that of 2012-13, according to a Times of India story relayed by the TMA and citing the latest data presented in parliament by the Ministry of Health.

At the same time, domestic cigarette production fell from 117.0 billion to 105.3 billion. Despite the fall in consumption, the number of female smokers in the country has risen, according to the results of a global study entitled Smoking Prevalence and Cigarette Consumption in 187 Countries – 1980-2012, which was released last year and which showed that India has the second largest female smoking population after the US.

The number of Indian women who smoke rose from 5.3 million in 1980 to 12.7 million in 2012.

Meanwhile, it is thought that the decline in cigarette consumption is likely to have only a limited impact on the incidence of tobacco-related diseases given that cigarette use accounts for only about 11 percent of tobacco use in India.

According to a 2009-10 health ministry survey, 24 percent of adult men and 17percent of adult women use smokeless tobacco products, while 15 percent of men and two percent of women smoke. About nine percent of men and one percent of women use both smokeless tobacco products and cigarettes.