A 14-year-old with a glittery ‘mouth freshener’ in hand.
It smells like elaichi, tastes like candy, and looks like something you’d find in a schoolbag next to bubblegum.
But hidden behind the shimmer and celebrity ads is a well-oiled machine, a global industry banking on children to replace the 8 million lives it helps extinguish every year.
Welcome to India’s quiet nicotine war. And make no mistake: the battlefield is your child’s screen, lunchbox, and even textbook margins.
The Tobacco Industry’s Dirty Little Secret
Ever wondered why tobacco companies invest millions in promotions that seem more suited to birthday parties than cigarette packs?
Simple. Because younger smokers = lifetime customers.
From cricket stadiums echoing with ads for “pan masala” to Instagram influencers puffing pastel-coloured vape clouds, everything is crafted to make addiction look aspirational.
And while India has banned e-cigarettes, the nicotine market simply shapeshifts, through loopholes, lookalike products, and legal disguises.
This isn’t evolution. It’s manipulation.
What’s worse, these marketing strategies are often backed by celebrity endorsements. Film stars and sports icons appear in flashy ads for mouth fresheners and cardamom brands, products that carry the same branding as tobacco products from the same parent companies. This form of surrogate advertising, although legally ambiguous, creates powerful associations in the minds of young viewers. When a cricketer endorses a silver-wrapped “elaichi,” it’s not just a harmless spice, it’s a brand-building exercise for a tobacco company.
What the Numbers Don’t Shout, But Should
- 8% of school-going teens (13–15) use tobacco.
- 1 in 4 smokeless tobacco users started before age 7.
- 79% of Delhi students report seeing tobacco ads in movies.
- 23% encounter promotions online, often masked as harmless content.
Think about it. Before most kids learn trigonometry, they’re learning how to inhale, and not by accident.
The Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS-4) found that television, online videos, and movies are key channels through which Indian adolescents are exposed to these promotions. Despite laws banning advertising, nearly half of all surveyed students reported seeing tobacco-related promotions in the past 30 days. This is no coincidence, it’s a systemic failure in enforcement and surveillance.
When Flavours Fool the Brain
Nicotine isn’t just a chemical; it’s a master of disguise.
In India, it hides in fruity bidis, bubblegum-scented vapes, and cardamom-flavoured sachets endorsed by glamorous celebrities. These aren’t traditional tobacco products, they’re dopamine-delivery devices wearing candy-coloured cloaks.
It rewires young brains, attacking attention spans, self-control, and mood regulation.
Even 5mg a day, just a quarter of a vape pod, can spark addiction.
And the impact?
- Nicotine use in adolescence is linked to long-term anxiety, depression, and cognitive deficits.
- It increases the risk of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases.
- Dual users (smoking and vaping) are over 3 times more likely to develop chronic illness compared to non-users.
- Smokeless tobacco, still widely used in India, raises the risk of oral cancer by nearly sevenfold.
These aren’t future possibilities, they are current realities. And they’re robbing children of their futures, one inhale at a time.
Even non-combustible products like nicotine pouches—often touted as safer alternatives—carry health risks. They raise heart rate and blood pressure and create a false sense of reduced harm, making them dangerously attractive to first-time users.
A Crisis of Conscience and Policy
India’s policies are solid on paper:
- The Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) bans tobacco advertising and sales near schools.
- The e-cigarette ban (2019) prohibits production, sale, and marketing of vapes.
- Graphic pack warnings scream “Don’t.”
But the reality?
- Celebrities sell the “silver elaichi” dreams.
- Small shops sell single sticks and gutkha sachets just steps away from school gates.
- Police often don’t know what’s legal and what’s lethal.
It’s not just a policy gap, it’s a willpower gap.
What further complicates enforcement is the fragmentation of tobacco control within India’s healthcare system. Tobacco cessation isn’t fully integrated into routine primary healthcare, especially at the Health & Wellness Centre (HWC) level. Meanwhile, budgetary allocation for tobacco control remains minimal, often sidelined amid competing public health priorities.
The Groundbreaking Work Being Done
Fortunately, not everyone is asleep at the wheel.
Across India, local innovations are proving that smart policy and community engagement can shift the tide:
- Maharashtra’s “Tobacco-Free Villages” declared themselves off-limits to tobacco sales using panchayat resolutions.
- Karnataka piloted QR code–based digital surveillance to track tobacco violations at points of sale.
- Assam’s RKSK (Rashtriya Kishor Swasthya Karyakram) empowered peer educators to lead awareness campaigns among adolescents.
These efforts show that when systems work at the grassroots level, real change follows.
But scattered pilots aren’t enough. We need scale. Systems. Solidarity.
Other effective approaches include integrating tobacco education into school curricula, empowering students to act as watchdogs, and training local officials to detect violations. A growing number of civil society groups and pediatric associations are also taking the fight online, flagging social media content that violates the spirit, if not the letter, of tobacco advertising laws.
The Way Forward: Bite Back, Boldly
To flip the narrative, we must stop being polite about poison.
- Ban the flavours. Ban the single sticks.
- Digitally hunt down surrogate ads, before they hunt our children.
- Make tobacco a villain in school books, not a cool prop in streaming shows.
- Fund tobacco control like it’s a national emergency, because it is.
- Treat teenagers not as passive targets, but as powerful defenders.
It’s time to mobilise classrooms, courtrooms, and chatrooms.
A Future Without Smoke and Mirrors
The tobacco industry doesn’t sell cigarettes or elaichi.
It sells addiction, illusions, and lifelong dependency.
But if India chooses to fight back, with truth, transparency, and technology, we can turn this from a tale of manipulation into a movement of resistance.
Because every child deserves more than just a warning on a pack.
They deserve a future not measured in puffs, but in potential.
Let’s stop the sweet-talking. Let’s start protecting.
