The Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2023-24 delivers an
uncomfortable truth India can no longer afford to ignore: tobacco consumption is rising fast,
spreading wider, and embedding itself deeper into the lives of poorer households – just as the
state expands publicly funded healthcare. This collision of trends is not accidental, and it carries
serious implications for health outcomes, fiscal sustainability, and social policy.
Adjusted for inflation, per capita spending on tobacco rose sharply between 2011-12
and 2023-24 – by 58 % in rural India and an even steeper 77 % in urban areas. Tobacco now
accounts for around 1.5 % of monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) in rural
areas and 1 % in urban areas. On the surface, these shares may appear modest. But the real
alarm lies elsewhere: in the explosion of the number of households consuming tobacco. In rural
India, tobacco-consuming households increased from 9.9 crore (59.3 % of all households) to
13.3 crore (68.6 %) – a rise of 33 % in just over a decade. Urban India tells an even more
dramatic story. The number of tobacco-consuming households jumped by 59 %, from 2.8 crore
(34.9 %) to 4.7 crore (45.6 %). Tobacco use is no longer confined to traditional pockets or
demographics; it is becoming mainstream across rural and urban India alike.
