A health report male journos will agree with?

Lies, lies and damn fags: Indian women journalists light up more often than ordinary Indian women.

That’s the finding of a month-long study (authored by a male doctor) spanning 1,500 mediapersons in 15 print, television and advertising companies on the occasion of World No-Tobacco Day.

While the national average of Indian women smoking is 1.5 per cent—meaning, out of every 100 women, between one and two women like to take a drag—the average among women journalists is between 5 per cent and 35 per cent, if your poison is The Hindustan Times.

Or has shot up from 5 per cent to 35 per cent if you believe The Indian Express. The comparable figures for men are not known.

The study was conducted by Ravikant Singh of the non-governmental organisation “Doctors for You“.

While women smoking has often been interpreted as an affirmation of their identity as a free and equal person and attributed to peer pressure, Singh reports that women journalists smoke excessively to “curb their hunger pangs”.

Verily, “You’ve come a long way, babies“.

Photograph: Indian prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru helps a British envoy’s wife light up in a picture shot by India’s first woman photojournalist Homai Vyarawala

Wash it down: How well do you know your alphabet?