Union Health Ministry has roped in former Indian cricket team captain Rahul Dravid as brand ambassador for its National Tobacco Control Campaign ahead of an international conference to strengthen global efforts to fight the tobacco epidemic.

This was announced by Additional Secretary in the Health Ministry C K Mishra at a press conference here today, in connection with the forthcoming conference scheduled from September 10 to 12 involving over 500 delegates from over 50 countries.

Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and HRIDAY are organising the conference with the support of the Union Ministry and the World Health Organisation to deliberate and present actionable strategies to fight the global tobacco epidemic.

“India has been committed to strengthen its national tobacco control efforts as well as to contribute to advancing tobacco control, globally. India played a leading role during the negotiations of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and has been striving to introduce measures for implementing and moving beyond the Treaty. The nation-wide ban on gutka is one such step. We are happy to host Governments, tobacco control experts, multi-disciplinary advocates, human rights activists, policymakers and health professionals from across the world in India and deliberate on methods to collaboratively fight the tobacco epidemic,” Mishra said.

“The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) demonstrates the world's commitment to decisive action against the global tobacco epidemic. It is one of the most widely embraced treaties in the history of the United Nations and provides Member States with a powerful tool for saving many lives through tobacco control and noncommunicable disease prevention,” said Dr Nata Menabde, WHO Country Representative for India.

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad and WHO director general Dr Margaret Chan will inaugurate the conference. Minister of State for Women and Child Development  Krishna Tirath and Health Minister of Jamaica Dr Fenton Ferguson will also attend the meet.

The conference will also celebrate the completion of a decade of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, the world’s first public health treaty and India’s tobacco control law - Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA). The Conference will also see the launch of a global, youth-led movement ‘No More Tobacco in the 21st Century’.