Second National Conclave on Best Practices for Tobacco Control in India held at PGIMER on 12-14th January 2023
The three-day 2nd National Conclave on Best Practices for Tobacco Control in India was held under the aegis of the Resource Centre for Tobacco Control (RCTC) at the Department of Community Medicine and School of Public Health (DCM and SPH), PGIMER, Chandigarh in collaboration with the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union) concluded on 14th, 2023. The conclave witnessed senior national and state officials from the Government of India, academia, and NGOs across 15 states to discuss and compile 25 good, replicable, and innovative practices for the effective implementation of tobacco control in India. ‘A Compendium of Good, Replicable and Innovative Practices in Tobacco control in India will be published which will list all 25 best practices of tobacco control in the country’, said Dr Sonu Goel, professor at the DCM & SPH at PGIMER Chandigarh and Program Coordinator.
Dr. Suneela Garg, Chair of the Programme Advisory Committee at NIHFW, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), New Delhi emphasized the need for such initiatives and pledged the full support in the development of important book. Guests of honor like Dr. Rana J Singh, Deputy Regional Director of The UNION, SEA, New Delhi, Dr. PC Gupta, Director of Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health, Navi Mumbai, and Dr. Rakesh Gupta, President of Rajasthan Cancer Foundation, Jaipur appreciated PGIMER for highlighting the importance of documenting best practices in tobacco control as a coffee-table book which will advance tobacco control towards achieving the “Tobacco Endgame” in the country along with achieving the Sustainable Development Goals in the country.
Some of the best practices discussed at the conclave included WHO FCTC article 5.3, Tobacco control through public health associations, Social marketing intervention tobacco control, Tobacco Industry Interference, Tobacco cessation, E cigarettes-END, Tobacco exposure, and OTT platform, Implementation of Tobacco-free educational institutions, the formation of Section 5 committees, the creation of a smoke-free Junjhunu district, a Tobacco-free Char Dham yatra, the Rose campaign, Tobacco-free generation, the involvement of children in tobacco control, Tobacco endgame and a ban on smokeless tobacco.
During the conclave, the Resource Centre also initiated a Delphi study to prioritize the National Tobacco Control Program at the Subnational and National levels. In addition, a special issue of the Tobacco Free Times, 22nd edition, focusing on “Plain Packaging” was also released.
