The Smoke Spectre of Orissa

Metropolitan India is battling tobacco use through taxation policies, the stepping up of anti-smoking interventions and the ban on the marketing of some tobacco products.  But in distant tribal communities, tobacco continues to be an intrinsic part of life.

By Sarada Lahangir, courtesy of the Women's Feature Service

In the north eastern Indian state of Orissa, home to a large number of tribal communities, tobacco is as essential purchase as food.  It comes in various forms:  a powder called bhang is smoked as are short handmade cigars called sutta, and a kind of tobacco paste called gudakhu  is used to clean teeth. Women are major consumers of all tobacco products.

Galartha Naik, an elderly tribal woman of Bandhugaon village, said, “I exactly don’t remember when I started smoking but I know I have learnt it from my parents. Now I cannot live without smoking. If someone comes and tells us to give us eating rice, is it possible?”

Elderly Pamia Lachhma, from an adjoining village echoes Galartha, “We get relief by smoking sutta. We do such hard work; don’t we need to smoke to warm up our bodies? I certainly won’t give up smoking and will do so till I die.”

Tobacco deaths
India is the second largest consumer of tobacco in the world, second only to China. But it has the highest rate of oral cancer in the world – 90% of which come from tobacco use.  According to the Indian Ministry of Health, approximately 900,000 people die every year because of tobacco related diseases which include cancers of the lung, mouth and esophagus.  Yet an estimated one in four people in rural areas use tobacco products.

Jamana Gadaba has been using bhang since she was a child. Five years ago, her teeth and gums started hurting and bleeding.  The doctor she consulted at a local hospital prescribed medication which at Rs200 was prohibitively expensive. So she decided to massage tobacco paste into her gum – one container of gudakhucosts Rs 10 and lasts four or five days, she says. “It gives me instant relief. When I don’t use this paste the pain starts all over again.”

Every village market in this region sells all tobacco products openly, even the ones that are banned. Madhab Muduli, 50, is a vendor who has prospered since he went into the trade after stopping work as a day labourer. “I know selling tobacco is illegal, but what can I do? There are just no other sources of income available to us. When government officials come by, we hide this merchandise or bribe them to keep quiet.”

Villagers can spend 50-70 cents a week on their tobacco, averaging to 5-10% of their monthly income.  But there is little education about the health and economic costs of tobacco addiction in such areas.

According to activist Sarat Kumar Dhal,  “neither state government officials nor any civil society organisation has come forward to point out the dangers of smoking here. The government is keen to be seen to be addressing the backwardness of the local population, but it has overlooked the specific tobacco use problems in the region.”