Absence of Tobacco Discussions in India G20 Meetings

During the recently held 2023 G20 Summit, national leaders and cabinet ministers from across the world came together for a series of meetings in India on a variety of topics regarding state governance and collaboration. Conducted under the Indian presidency, these meetings were enlightening in both what was discussed and what was left off the table.

The Health Ministers’ meetings on August 18th and 19th in Gandhinagar, Gujarat included discussions on lessons from COVID-19, health and climate change, recognising evidence-based traditional and complementary medicine, and many other urgent issues. However, the 25-paragraph document detailing the discussions from these meetings does not once refer to tobacco, its health impacts, or any efforts to curtail its harm. This complete lack of mention only serves to highlight that governments still do not give tobacco harm reduction and smoking cessation the attention it deserves.

As the host country, India should also be held accountable for overlooking tobacco in the G20 discussions. In the financial year 2020, India made 356 billion Indian rupees from cigarette tax revenues – making tobacco a lucrative element of the Indian economy.

However, a 2021 study by the World Health Organisation also found that India loses 1% of its GDP to tobacco-related disease and premature deaths – which means that, ‘for every Rs 100 received as excise taxes from tobacco products, Indian economy loses Rs 816.’ Therefore, conducting discussions on tobacco harm reduction and paving a way towards smoking cessation is not only important from a public health point of view, but also benefits the Indian economy.

Moving forward, it is vital that future G20 discussions, under the upcoming Brazilian presidency, will not make the mistake of keeping tobacco off the agenda.