PARLIAMENTARIANS CALL FOR STRETHNENING TOBACCO CONTROL LAW FOR TOBACCO FREE INDIA
Guwahati, Rongili Barta- Members of Parliament came together and urged Government of India to remove designated smoking areas (DSA) at hotels/restaurants and airports to protect people from second-hand smoke by strengthening tobacco law. While appreciating the Government for initiating the process to amend COTPA 2003, they appealed for immediate removal of current provision that permits smoking areas to make India 100 percent smoke free during the roundtable discussion of Parliamentarians organized at the Constitution Club of India, New Delhi. Secondhand smoke is a major contributor to this burden, and a new study conducted by Rajgiri college shows that secondhand attributable healthcare costs amount to INR 566.7 billion annually. Despite some progress, 30 percent of Indians are exposed to secondhand smoke at work, and 23 percent are exposed in public places such as restaurants, public transportation, etc. With more than 100 million smokers in India, 39 percent of Indians are still exposed to secondhand smoke at workplaces. Smoking at public places at Designated Smoking Areas also exposes innocent victims to cancer causing second hand smoke Dr. Kirit Premjibhai Solanki, Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha said – Children begin tobacco use in early age in India and consequently may become addicted. It’s critical to make sure we strengthen our laws.Most of designated smoking areas are rarely compliant as per COTPA requirements and are actually putting our public at great health risk from exposure to second hand smoke” Dr.Vikas Mahatme , Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha- Strengthen the tobacco control law COTPA 2003 is need of the hour as this is crucial to protect youth from tobacco. Such measures have the potential to reduce the initiation of tobacco use among youngsters who can become addicted to this harmful deadly substance. Removals of Designated Smoking Areas are only one factor of tobacco control, he opined. Very strict amended law is required. The sale of tobacco products to minors is very alarming. Government of India have taken many strong steps and for amending tobacco control law COTPA 2003 as an important step towards improving public health government needs strong public support. For making India smoke free and protect millions of lives NGOs must work together to save livelihood of all stakeholders said Sudhir Gupta, Member of Parliament., Lok Sabha.
“It’s shocking to see that children are being target by tobacco companies. It’s critical to strengthen our existing law COTPA 2003 and have stronger penalty provisions to protect our children and youth from menace of tobacco for healthy India” said KTS Tulsi, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha Members of Parliament from Lok sabha Hemant Shriram Patil and Neeraj Dangi, Member of Upper House said unanimously that second-hand smoking is as harmful as smoking. Exposure to second-hand smoke causes s lung function and respiratory infections for all. There is an urgent need to strengthen the provisions for making India smoke free and protect the future generation. All designated smoking areas in hotels and restaurants and even airports should be removed. Effective tobacco control policies can achieve big goal to curtail the tobacco menace.
As per the recent Global Youth Tobacco Survey(GYTS) released nearly one-fifth of students aged 13-15 years are using tobacco products in India.“I applaud the Government of India for starting the amendment process of tobacco control law COTPA 2003 as this is an important step towards improving public health. Passive smoking is killing many as DSA’s emits injurious smoke to children and non smokers’ said Ashim Sanyal, COO Consumer VOICE, New Delhi India has the second largest number of tobacco users (268 million or 28.6% of all adults in India) in the world – of these at least 1.3 million die every year from tobacco related diseases. One million deaths are due to smoking, with over 200,000 due to second-hand smoke exposure, and over 35,000 are due to smokeless tobacco use. Nearly 27% of all cancers in India are due to tobacco usage. Tobacco use in all forms, whether smoking or chewing, is associated with severe COVID-19 casualties as per advisories issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and ICMR.