Over 100 million people in India smoke bidi and more people die due to smoking bidis than all other forms of tobacco combined, says a bidi monograph, the first study of the kind conducted anywhere in the world. It further says that 800 million bidis are sold in the country each year.

While 19 per cent of tobacco consumption in India is in the form of cigarettes, 53 per cent is smoked as bidis. Roughly about eight bidis are sold for every cigarette, underlines Bidi Smoking and Public Health, released by Union Ministry of Health and Family welfare on Monday.

“Tobacco is harmful in all its forms. Anti-tobacco advocacy is a major task of this ministry,” said Naresh Dayal, Secretary, Health Ministry, while releasing the monograph. Dayal added that Food and Agricultural Organisation estimated that 29 lakh persons grow tobacco for bidis in the country.

The current bidi smoking prevalence is high (10.6 per cent-14.2 per cent) in Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim, intermediately high (4.6 per cent-9.2 per cent) in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chandigarh and Meghalaya, low (1 per cent or less) in Goa, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab, intermediately low (1.1 per cent-2.9 per cent) in Maharastra, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tripura, Orissa, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh.

According to the monograph, regular prevalence of smoking is highest in Mizoram and lowest in Punjab. “Bidi smoking is found to be more common in households consuming paan or alcohol,” says the report, authored by 35 experts and 51 reviewers.

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