Quitline activity in Rajasthan, India is a voluntary activity of Rajasthan Cancer Foundation (RCF) since April
2013. To kick-off, it took the benefit of the State Government- PIRAMAL SWASTHYA (PS)1 collaborative 104
Health Information Helpline that existed already in public-private partnership. It is a reactive quitline that helps
callers through the counselors and nursing staff trained specifically through the weekly sessions held by the first
author, the RCF resource on quitline. Besides structuring of the scripts for primary intervention and follow-ups
after 1 week, 1 month, 6 months and a year, he also monitors calls, advices and coordinates with the supervisors
to manage and analyze the data base, and reports to the PS lead at the Jaipur Center on overall performance
and to plan strategic communication with the State Government on its outcomes. The quitline has limitations
of its informal existence through a voluntary effort of RCF, no specific resource allocation, suboptimal data
management, minimal awareness in the masses due to poor IEC (Information, Education and Communication;
except its efforts made by RCF in last 1 year through the government-run State TV and City Radio) and staff
shortage and its attrition due to lack of plan for career advancement. Despite these challenges in the year 2013,
the quit line has registered a quit rate (for complete abstinence) of 19.93% amongst 1525 callers. The quit rate
were 58.01% (304/ 524) among the responders at the 3rd follow-up at 18 months (in September 2014)2. In view
of an increase in quit rate by 5- 9 times over the prevailing quit rate in the former ever daily users [both smokers
and the users of smokeless tobacco (SLT)], efforts are being made by RCF in concurrence with PS to have this
cost-effective model established formally with optimal resource allocation in collaboration with willing agencies
(the State and Central Governments and the International Quitline Agencies) and its replication in 4 more states
where PS is collaborating with the respective state governments similarly (Assam, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand
and Karnataka).
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