PTI

New Delhi, Feb 14: The government seems to be on the right track as it wants to put pictorial warnings on tobacco products with a new study showing that 50 per cent of those dying due to smoking are illiterates.

According to the study by the World Health Organisation (WHO), a majority of those dying due to smoking are in the rural areas and half of them are illiterates.

"This shows the need for pictorial warnings as the illiterate people cannot read written warnings and need pictorial warnings to tell them about the dangers of smoking," Poonam Singh of WHO said.

According to Prabhat Jha, author of the study, the rate of quitting smoking across the world is higher than that in India.

While in India, the rate of quitting smoking is just two per cent, China scores with nine per cent even as the country did not use pictorial warnings. "It was the awareness created through the media which helped in the Chinese case."

In the United Kingdom, however, the change from pictorial warnings to written ones has helped a lot.

"Something like 40 per cent of the population in the United Kingdom have quit smoking over a period of 20 years," Jha said.

The number of smokers in that country declined from 80,000 to 40,000 per year in close to two decades, he said.

"Currently the quitting rate in India is very low. May be pictorial warnings would help," Jha said.