Cigarettes are replacing the traditional bidis, 36% rise in male smokers in India

Anti-smoking scrolls during movies and television don't seem to have enlightened Indians enough on the ill-effects of tobacco as the number of men smoking tobacco in India rose by more than one-third in the last 17 years. Health experts are hence asking the Indian government to impose higher taxes on tobacco in its Monday morning budget.

Most of these new smokers are in the 15-29 age group, said a new study published in the BMJ Global Health journal on Saturday.

Moreover, in a twisted marker of India's growing economic prosperity, the study found that Indians have replaced the traditional bidi-- the smaller, inexpensive Indian cigarette-- for cigarettes.

The study's author Dr Prabhat Jha has urged the Indian government to increase tobacco taxes in its February 29 budget. Previous research by Dr Jha has shown that raising the tax on tobacco is the single most effective intervention to lower smoking rates and to deter future smokers.

In 2010 smoking caused about 1 million deaths or 10 % of all deaths in India, with about 70 % of those deaths occurring between the ages of 30 and 69, said a press release sent by BMJ, quoting Dr Jha, a professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.

The study found the number of men smoking any type of tobacco at ages 15-69 years rose by about 29 million, or 36 %, from 79 million in 1998 to 108 million in 2015, representing an average annual increase of about 1.7 million male smokers.

``Cigarettes are steadily displacing traditional bidis. By 2015, there were roughly equal numbers of men ages 15-69 years smoking cigarettes or bidis: approximately 61 million Indian adult men smoked cigarettes (40 million exclusively) and 69 million smoked bidis (48 million exclusively),'' said the release.

The study also found: ``The highest prevalence of any smoking in men aged 15-69 years was in illiterate men in both 1998 and 2010. Among illiterate men, the prevalence of cigarette smoking rose most sharply, by about 3.6 times. By contrast, among men with Grade 10 or more education, the prevalence of bidi or any smoking fell, but still rose modestly for cigarettes.''