WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION MPOWER FOR TOBACCO CONTROL IN INDIA: A 6-YEAR RETROSPECTIVE ANALYSIS

Abstract

Background. Prevalence and practices of tobacco usage in India are diverse and incongruent and Government of India has enacted various laws to overcome this burden. To make tobacco control measures effective and powerful, WHO introduced MPOWER in 2004 and India was one of the first countries that implemented the MPOWER. Objective. This study is aimed to quantify the implementation of MPOWER tobacco control policies in India. Material and Methods. In this retrospective analysis, data was gathered from the WHO MPOWER of India from 2015 to 2021. This analysis was based on the checklist which was designed previously by Iranian and international tobacco control specialists in their study on tobacco control. Results. In the present comparative analysis, India was categorized by scores and these were acquired from each indicator for each activity and 2021 year got the highest scores as compared to the previous year scores i.e. 27 in 2015. In context to individual indicators, noticeable increase in scores has been seen in both health warning on cigarette packages and adult daily smoking prevalence, whereas no progress was observed in smoking related policies. Conclusion. Although MPOWER programmes are widely accepted by the Indian government, but still substantial improvement in fewer sections is required.