Recognizing the importance of tobacco cessation,
13 tobacco cessation clinics (TCCs) were started in
2002 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,
Government of India, with the support of the World
Health Organization India Country office, and increased
subsequently to 19 to provide tobacco cessation
interventions. The objectives of these clinics were to
evolve cessation strategies for smokers and smokeless
tobacco users, to generate experience in tobacco
cessation interventions and find out the feasibility of
scaling up these intervention strategies. In the first five
years, 34,741 tobacco users attended these clinics and
baseline information was recorded for 23,3203
. Only
behavioural intervention was provided for 69 per cent
of the users and the remaining 31 per cent received
both behavioural intervention and pharmacotherapy.
At the sixth week follow up, 14 per cent reported to
have completely quit tobacco and another 22 per cent
reported harm reduction (reducing tobacco use by at
least 50 per cent of the baseline use)3
. Limited number
of tobacco users accessing these clinics and very low
proportion of tobacco users from rural areas were the
major disadvantages of these clinics