Anti-Tobacco Efforts Are No Match for Tobacco-Company Maneuvers in India
This article was published in MONITOR, Winter 2005, Volume 13 - Issue 2 (Insider's View). Monitor is managed by 'Center for Communications, Health and the Environment, Washington'
Anti-Tobacco Efforts Are No Match for Tobacco-Company Maneuvers in India
by Hemant Goswami, Chairperson, Burning Brain Society, Chandigarh, India
Anti-tobacco campaigns aren't cutting through the smoke in India. Even as Bollywood movie king Shahrukh Khan announced that he was quitting smoking for his 40th birthday, a recent survey by the Burning Brain Society, an anti-tobacco civil society organization based in Chandigarh, India, revealed that more than 89 percent of respondents were unaware of the country's anti-tobacco laws, and 73 percent were ignorant about the rights of non-smokers. (See chart.) Conversely, almost all of the respondents could recall more than one brand of tobacco product and some form of tobacco advertisement.
This is reason to worry especially because tobacco companies continue to promote their products relentlessly in India despite ratification of landmark anti-tobacco treaties such as the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and the 2003 Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA). In fact, these behemoths are pursuing innovative means of surrogate advertisement, publicity, product placement and point-of-purchase (POP) displays, including eye-catching arrangements in super stores, grocery shops, restaurants, toy stores and stationery outlets.
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