Two-Day National Consultation-cum-Workshop on Tobacco Control Initiatives: From Policy to Practice
19 Nov 2025
National Law University Odisha 14th and 15th November 2025
The two-day national consultation-cum-workshop was organised by the National Law University Odisha as a part of its Project on Tobacco Control Initiative, in collaboration with Centre for Public Health Law of NLUO, National Law University Tripura and Vital Strategies, New Delhi, on 14th and 15th of November 2025 at NLUO’s campus in Cuttack. The themes of the workshop included – health burden of tobacco use in India; Legislative Framework on Tobacco Control; Advancing Policies and Regulations; Countering Tobacco Industry Interference; Protection of Vulnerable Population; and Accountability in Tobacco Control.
The workshop on both days started with Plenary sessions, wherein the Keynote addresses were delivered covering various themes of the workshop. The keynote speakers included Prof. Yogesh Pratap Singh, Vice Chancellor, NLU Tripura; Dr. Nilakantha Mishra, Director of Health Services, Government of Odisha; Dr. Harish Meena, Associate Professor, NCERT, Ministry of Education; Dr. Ramya Pinnamaneni, Director, KIIT School of Public Health; and Dr. Prajna Paramita Giri, Associate Professor, Community Medicine & Family Medicine, AIIMS Bhubaneswar.
The second session of the programme focused on the consultation on the MPOWER policy, split into 6 sessions across two days on Monitoring tobacco use, Protecting People from Tobacco Smoke, Offering Help to Quit Tobacco Use, Warning about the dangers of Tobacco, Enforcing TAPS ban and Raising Taxes on Tobacco. The consultation largely saw the discussion on the challenges in achieving the six components of the policy and the corresponding improvements and developments that are needed for the policy implementation.
The third sessions on both days of the conference consisted of 17 paper presentations and 3 poster presentations across 5 sessions on the themes relating inter alia to ToFEI Compliance, TAPS Ban, Countering Tobacco Industry Interference, transition from tobacco to non-tobacco livelihoods, etc.
The two-day programme saw participation of 58 participants from across the country and the State of Odisha from the fields of academia, civil society, government officials, legal and public health experts, etc. The discourse undertaken at the workshop significantly contributed towards the study of tobacco control and has immense potential to contribute towards strengthening the tobacco control regime in India. The workshop was organised by Dr. Rishika Khare, Project leader of the Project on Tobacco Control Initiatives, under the guidance of Project Technical Advisor, Dr. Amit Yadav, Deputy Director – Tobacco Control, Vital Strategies, New Delhi.
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