World No-Tobacco Day: Need to protect social and physical health

Tribune News Service

Manmeet Singh Gill

Amritsar, May 31

While the harmful effects of tobacco consumption are known and a ban on smoking at public places is also in place, of late it has also become a cause of social tension as is evident from the recent instances in which a woman was caught smoking a bidi inside the Golden Temple premises or when some youths vandalised cigarette shops last week.

And it is not for the first time that the sale and use of tobacco has caused conflict in communities and has led to serious repercussions. Back in the 1980s, when a section of a community had announced a protest march to demand a ban on the sale and use of tobacco in the walled city, another group from another community had held a march brandishing weapons with bidi packs tied on them to oppose any ban on tobacco.

Amid the conflicting political interests and their manifestation, common residents feel that there is no harm in banning the sale and use of tobacco at least in areas around the Golden Temple where violent backlashes have occurred against the use of tobacco in the past and even recently too.

“It is a fact that tobacco use is harmful and a cause of cancer. Its use among the youth has increased and some of them consider it to be a style statement. The government has tried to curb the use of tobacco by using various measures such as using pictorial warnings or increasing tax to make tobacco costly but so far it has failed to give any results,” said Jatinder Preet Singh, an advocate for ban on tobacco sale.

The residents said that an increase in the number of cigarette vends has been witnessed, especially as the population of migrant families in the city has increased in recent years. The residents stated that strict implementation of the Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) can also help in checking the use of tobacco in its various forms.

“If we look at it from the perspective of harms that tobacco has on health, a ban must be imposed immediately. However, when inter-community conflicts come into play, a simple matter gets unnecessarily politicised,” said another resident, Saurabh Sharma.