Now Children want Delhi tobacco-free....

The Hindu, Sunday, September 13, 1998

When “Say no to poly-bags” comes from the most influential pressure group, children, can “ say no to tobacco” be far behind?
School children in the Capital have not let the grass grow under their feet after taking to the campaign against poly-bags with determination. Having succeeded at something that Chief Ministers and civic authorities have failed badly, children have now turned attention to making their city tobacco-free.

Over sixty schools from different schools today petitioned the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, articulating the concerns of “all young persons of the country” over the threat that tobacco posed for their future.

Looking forward to building an India of their dreams, the children are aware that tobacco would be one of the major problems that they would need to overcome. And the reasons, they told the Prime Minister, are plenty. Out of every 1,000 teenagers who smoke, 500 die of tobacco-related disease. Of these 250 will occur in the middle age, with an average loss if 22 years of life-expectancy, when compared to non-smokers. The other 250 would survive longer, but suffer ill-health past their middle age. Tobacco claims three million lives every year, and this would cross 10 million by 2020. In India tobacco-related deaths would rise from 1.4 per cent of all deaths in 1990, to 13.3 in 2020.

The children have appealed to Mr. Vajpayee to initiate measures to usher in a tobacco-free society. World leaders who have signed global conventions to ban chemical and biological weapons, and a similar effort must also be made to eliminate modern world’s biggest killer, they had said.

Conceding that the Government faced difficulties in eliminating tobacco which provided ready revenue, the children have pleaded that their “tomorrows should not be bartered away for today’s taxes”. Sustainable health and environment both demanded early and effective tobacco control, they have said.

In an appeal, the children urged the Prime Minister to start the process by imposing a comprehensive ban on all forms of tobacco advertising through sponsorship of sports must be discouraged, as the ban on this form of advertising had been “cleverly subverted” by promoting sports contests and linking them to tobacco brands through other products bearing those names.

Today’s initiative is the product of the Student Health Action Network (SHAN) a network of school students in the Capital, which has already organised several programmes since January this year.