The National Medical Commission (NMC) has directed medical colleges across India to establish ‘tobacco cessation centres’ to combat the adverse effects of tobacco use and promote public health.
The initiative aims to strengthen healthcare infrastructure by integrating specialized services for tobacco cessation into the educational and healthcare framework. All hospitals attached to each medical college are directed to make provisions for ‘tobacco cessation centres’, which can be special clinics run by the Department of Psychiatry or other departments.
These centres should also be established in rural and urban health centres that the college has adopted for training. The centres will also function as ‘drug de-addiction centres’. India has the second-largest number of tobacco users globally, with at least 1.2 million dying annually from tobacco-related diseases. Nearly 27% of all cancers in India are due to tobacco usage, with the total direct and indirect cost of diseases attributable to tobacco use being nearly 1.8% of India’s GDP.