The residents of one of India’s poorest tribal districts consume tobacco products worth Rs 73 crore each year, much more than the government budget for four major rural schemes, according to the findings of SEARCH, or Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health, a Gadchiroli-based NGO run by doctor couple Abhay and Rani Bang.

The staggering figure is about Rs 23 crore more than the total budget of the NREGS (Rs 23.38 cr), the District Planning and Development Council (Rs 21.03 cr), the Rural Community Health (Rs 3.72 cr) and the National Rural Health Mission (Rs 1.78 cr). The study was conducted by a SEARCH team led by Santosh Sawalkar and including Prabhakar Kelzarkar, Kishor Pendam, Mahesh Deshmukh, Dr Dharav Shah and male Arogyadoots (health workers).

The team surveyed 24 randomly selected villages in four tehsils of Gadchiroli and found that nearly half the residents are addicts.

Overall, the team interviewed 16,780 people, tribal and non-tribal, in rural and urban areas, and found 8,462 tobacco addicts. This indicates 51 per cent of the rural population consumes tobacco. The district has an estimated 10,93,016 residents and the findings indicate that 5,72,419 consume tobacco products. The average age of beginning tobacco use, which earlier was 30-35 years, is now as low as 10, an age which has never been associated with addiction or even exposure to tobacco products.

The survey found that 59 per cent of the tribal population and 26 per cent of the urban areas are tobacco users. Gender-wise, 82 per cent men and 49 per cent women are addicted in rural areas, 88 per cent and 67 per cent in tribal areas, and 53 per cent and 19 per cent in city areas. The report says what is disconcerting is that the young are not free of the addiction. In the age groups of 16-20, 55 per cent are addicts. Aggressive advertising campaigns and far-reaching distribution networks of tobacco companies have certainly made their mark, the survey says.

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