02/01/2021 - Society

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KEY POINTS

The principle law governing tobacco use in India, the COPTA Act of 2003, could have a significant impact. Steps such as banning point-of-sale advertisements, abolishing designated smoking areas at airports, etc.

The socio-economic challenge

·        This policy challenge in countering tobacco use, therefore, has become a question of both lives and livelihoods. Tobacco companies often use livelihood creation as a justification to continue cultivation.

·        The government is actively intervening to reduce the production of tobacco and incentivize people to switch to alternatives.

·        India also banned all electronic cigarettes and other ENDS (electronic nicotine delivery systems) products.

·        The government has formulated provisions for the distribution of high-quality seeds of alternative crops and financial assistance to farmers to encourage them to take up substitute farm and non-farm activities.

Private sector, civil society

·        There are already several NGOs targeting consumer behaviour aspects of tobacco use.

·        Private health researchers are also working actively to identify substitutes that can help in countering nicotine addiction, particularly in children.

·        For the producers, social and CSR initiatives like rural entrepreneurship or cooperative assistance involving cultivation of sugarcane, bamboo, Bengal gram, soybean, etc., would help enhance the viability of these crops.

·        At the same time, the state must also focus on curbing the proliferation of smuggled cigarettes, which accounts for 25 per cent of all cigarette sales and does not use Indian tobacco.

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