China, Canada have lessons for India's anti-smoking campaign

When it comes to making smokers kick the habit, India has a lot to learn from countries like Canada, New Zealand and even neighboring China.

These countries are shining examples of how the government and civil society can make individuals quit smoking - a sure way of reducing the risk of tuberculosis, cancer and respiratory and heart diseases.

In India, very few people have been able to give up the addiction. For instance, in 2004, only two percent of adults stopped smoking and only when they fell seriously ill, says a new World Health Organization (WHO) supported study published online in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Prabhat Jha, the lead author of the study, "A nationally representative case -control study of smoking and death in India", said China and Thailand had the same percentage of people quitting smoking 10 years ago.

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