Student counselling, inspections: Bengal rolls out anti-tobacco drive in educational institutions

4 min readKolkataJul 30, 2026 07:13 PM IST The move comes against the backdrop of the Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS-2019), which found that 8.5% of children aged 13-15 years in India consume tobacco in some form or the other. (Image generated using AI) Concerned over the early onset of tobacco addiction amongst the youth, the West Bengal State Health Department has rolled out a state-wide initiative to protect school going children and adolescents from tobacco exposure and addiction, introducing mandatory self-audits, student counselling and regular inspections by special block-level teams. A new Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), circulated to the Chief Medical Officer of Health (CMOH) across districts, outlines the implementation of Tobacco-Free Educational Institution (ToFEI) initi