Street children spend more money on tobacco than on food, said anti-smoking researchers. These children instead of food (meat, fruits, eggs, milk) use snuff, mava, gutka and cigarettes.

For example tobacco use is an integral part of life for street children in Mumbai. They start smoking by picking up cigarettes butts and beedis (small hand rolled cigars), then quickly move on to purchasing tobacco and spending significant quantity of their deficient incomes on it.

Researchers investigated a group of street children from Mumbai. They found that close to half (46.8 percent) of the children use gutka and 39.5 percent smoke beedis. Cigarettes, which are far more expensive than gutka and beedis, were consumed by 28 percent of the children.

According to the survey, daily consumption on tobacco was highest for gutka - at over Rs.6 per day. The amount also represented a large portion - about 21 percent - of the Rs.29, which was the average daily earning of these children.

Some children earning less than Rs.20 a day spent as much as Rs.8.60 daily on beedis, an astounding 43 percent of their earnings, while children earning less than Rs.60 per day spent Rs.8 per day buying mava, representing 13 percent of their income. Researchers reported that the quantities of tobacco products consumed increased substantially with the age of the children.

In comparing the amounts spent on food to those spent on tobacco, the average amount spent on gutka, is the same as that spent on the morning meal. More than one-third of the children do not eat eggs, and over one fourth children go without any fruit and 66 percent of the children do not drink milk.

"It is clear, when comparing the figures to tobacco purchases, we see that children tend to spend more on gutka, beedis and cigarettes each month than on food and clothing," the survey said.