📷 Image: Wikimedia Commons / Arshiya Urveeja Bose
Health
Nearly Half of Meghalaya Residents Use Tobacco, Villages Lead Anti‑Tobacco Drive
✍️ hubnetwork.in
🗓 10 Sep 2026, 11:33 AM
👁 43
A recent survey shows that 47% of people in Meghalaya use tobacco, prompting state officials to focus anti‑tobacco efforts on its villages.
A health survey released this week indicates that almost half of Meghalaya’s population—47 percent—uses tobacco in some form. The high prevalence has placed the state’s rural communities at the centre of a renewed anti‑tobacco campaign.
State health authorities, together with local NGOs, are concentrating awareness drives, counseling and cessation support in villages where tobacco use is most entrenched.
Officials say that targeting the grassroots level is essential to curb the habit, which contributes to rising non‑communicable diseases in the region.
The initiative includes school‑based education, community meetings and distribution of informational material in local languages, aiming to reduce consumption over the coming years.
State health authorities, together with local NGOs, are concentrating awareness drives, counseling and cessation support in villages where tobacco use is most entrenched.
Officials say that targeting the grassroots level is essential to curb the habit, which contributes to rising non‑communicable diseases in the region.
The initiative includes school‑based education, community meetings and distribution of informational material in local languages, aiming to reduce consumption over the coming years.