Political Economy of Tobacco Control

Duration of project
(2018 to 2023)

Deciphering an Epidemic of Epic Proportion: the role of state and tobacco industry in tobacco control in post-liberalized India (DEEP)

This is a research study aimed at understanding the role of the State and industry in tobacco control in post-1990s India. The research objectives are to (1) map public policies related to tobacco in this time period; (2) understand associations between policies and tobacco markets; (3) understand state and industry response to tobacco control policies; and (4) identifying regulatory scenarios that lead to significant reduction in tobacco use prevalence. It is a mixed-methods study that analyses a historical period through a range of techniques including interviews, documentary analysis, historiography, case studies.  

This study is supported by the India Alliance mid-career clinical and public health fellowship awarded to Upendra Bhojani

Research Team
Upendra Bhojani – Principal Investigator & DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance Intermediate Fellow
Anand Kumar – Research Officer
Latha Chilgod – Research Officer
Achyuth NG – Consultant
Chandrashekar Kottagi – Consultant
Ketki Shah – PhD Scholar 

Former team members
Adhip Amin – Research Officer
Amiti Varma – Research Officer
Aparna Vincent – Research Officer 

Funding Agency
Department of BioTechnology (Government of India)/Wellcome Trust India Alliance 

Collaborators 
Prof. Rijo John (development economist)
Dr. Werner Soors (health policy and systems specialist)

Mentors 
Mr. Pranay Lal (public health specialist; natural history expert/writer)
Prof. Malini Bhattacharjee (political scientist)

External Sponsor
Prof Andrew Russell, Professor, Department of Anthropology, Durham University, UK 

Sponsor
Dr Pragati Hebbar, Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru

Public Engagment

Digital Exhibit on Tobacco and Society

 

Peer Reviewed papers 

  1. How do tobacco control policies work in low-income and middle-income countries? A realist synthesis. 
  2. Legal Challenges in Tobacco Control: Historical and Qualitative Analysis of Litigations in Karnataka.
  3. Implementing FCTC Article 17 Through Participatory Research With Bidi Workers in Tamil Nadu, India. 
  4. The community health impasse: What can family physicians learn about integration of social determinants of health from the challenges, diversity, and worldview of primary healthcare practices located in Southern India? 
  5. Using social network analysis to understand multisectoral governance in district-level tobacco control programme implementation in India. 
  6. Strategic and contested use of food laws to ban smokeless tobacco products in India: a qualitative analysis of litigation 
  7. Policy Processes in Multisectoral Tobacco Control in India: The Role of Institutional Architecture, Political Engagement and Legal Interventions.
  8. Improving access to medicines for non-communicable diseases in rural primary care: results from a quasi-randomized cluster trial in a district in South India. 
  9. LifeFirst: Impact of a school-based tobacco and supari cessation intervention among adolescent students in Mumbai, India. 
  10. Implementation research for taking tobacco control policies to scale in India: a realist evaluation study protocol. 
  11. Diverse and competing interests around tobacco: qualitative analysis of two decades of parliamentary questions in India. 
  12. Healthcare delivery in India amid the Covid-19 pandemic: Challenges and opportunities. 
  13. Tobacco Industry Interference Index: Implementation of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Article 5.3 in India 
  14. Affirmative action, minorities, and public services in India: Charting a future research and practice agenda. 
  15. Integrating tobacco cessation into routine dental practice: protocol for a qualitative study. 

Reports

  1. Interference by Big tobacco and Affiliates in Tobacco Control in South Asia 
  2. India Tobacco Industry Interference Index 2020 

Blogs/magazine articles/OpEd

  1. Bhojani U, Dsouza R, Hebbar P, Amin A, Varma A. Tobacco, health and regulation in India: A national overview. In Durojaye E, Murungi LN (editors) International Human Rights Law and the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control: Lessons from Africa and Beyond. Routledge 2022.
  1. Ashok A, Bhojani U, Kapoor S, Lal P. Interference by Big Tobacco in South Asia warrants a closer look. Tobacco Control; 2022
  2. Bhojani U. Tobacco in Indian Parliament: 1999-2019. South Asian Regional Consortium Centre for Combating Tobacco; 2021
  3. Bhojani U Prevent tobacco lobby interreference. Deccan Herald; 2020
  4. Bhojani U, Lal P, Assunta M. Size doesn’t matter when it comes to tobacco industry interference: some observations from South Asia. South Asian Regional Consortium Centre for Combating Tobacco; 2019
  5. Bhojani U. Curbing tobacco: K’taka success story. Deccan Herald; 2018

Portal on tobacco-related parliamentary questions 

Legislators have long influenced and shaped discourse around tobacco through their questions and contributions to debates in both the houses of the Indian Parliament. This portal provides a unified and simpler interface to search through tobacco-related parliamentary questions that are otherwise also accessible through Lokasabha and Rajyasabha websites. The sole aim of creating such a portal is to help researchers, practitioners, and policymakers in their attempt to better understand tobacco-related developments and concerns in India.