'Pledge for life' campaign in Haryana

A 'Pledge for life' campaign to save the children from tobacco addiction was organised on Monday as a part of ‘Tobacco Free Haryana' campaign in a city.

Facts :

• ‘Tobacco Free Haryana’ campaign held in a city hotel on behalf of Sambandh Health Foundation (SHF), Tata Trusts, Fortis Foundation and Voice of Tobacco Victims (VoTV).
• Haryana has 47 lakh tobacco users and among those 28000 die every year.
• According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) 2016-17, in Haryana state 23.6% of the population that is around 46.84 lakh people (aged 15+)consume tobacco in some form. Of these 39 lakh people (19.7%) smoke.
• In Haryana state, 15.5% people smoke Bidi, 7.6% smoke hookah and 2.6% smoke cigarette and tobacco users at the age of 15 to 17 years have increased by 4%.
  Smoking also adversely affects the non-smokers. The subject that has to be seriously considered is that of these 10% people are those who do not smoke, but being in contact with smokers, they are too get affected and die.
• Every year around 13.5 lakh people die due to tobacco-related diseases in India; 26.7 crore people in our country consume tobacco, which is really a matter of concern.
• Every day around 5500 children in India start consuming tobacco in some form, whereas only 3% are able to quit.
• Every year, an estimated 28,000 people die in Haryana state due to various tobacco-related diseases including cancer caused by consuming tobacco. Around 116 children start consuming tobacco daily.
• In India 13.50 lakh people die in the world because of cancer caused due to consuming tobacco, whereas, in the world, 6 million people die because of this disease.
  1, 04,500 crore is spent annually in India to treat diseases caused by tobacco.
• In fact, the first case of Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act in Haryana was booked in Gurugram.

Analysis :

• School children through this campaign were informed about the ill-effects of tobacco.
• Children can be saved from this addiction with prevention strategies.
• Tobacco impacts every organ of a human body. Tobacco and smoking cause physical damages along with also affect the environment and land advejely. No other crop or plants can be grown on the land where tobacco farming is done.
• Sambandh Health Foundation (SHF) trustee Sanjay Seth explained in detail about 'EMPOWER' and Cigarettes & Other Tobacco Products (COTPA) Act 2003. He said if it is to effectively abide by the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act and COTPA then the number of tobacco users can be reduced.
• If the District Administration along with Police and Education department gets rigid enforcement of the COTPA and JJ Act, then control on sale and consumption of tobacco is possible.

By: Harman Sandhu