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| No Smoking, Please | | | T R Pandit
The non-smoking fraternity in India has undoubtedly welcomed the government diktat that bans smoking in public places and enclosed public premises like restaurants and discos. The day to enforce the no-smoking rule was chosen to coincide with the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and it lends a kind of moral strength to the ban on smoking.
Yet, preaching and enforcing the morality code has not only been controversial. It was anything but effective. The Mahatma had, for instance, also advocated prohibition but the sale and consumption of liquor in the country has reached staggering proportions. It is said that our consumption of Scotch exceeds the entire Scotch output in its native Scotland!
One thing that invites objections from many is the vigilante-like activities of the moral brigade, often self-appointed. It may not have been reported with screaming headlines but it has not been uncommon in certain parts of northern India to see smokers face physical and verbal abuse. The self-appointed moral squads hit the headlines in a big way on a day like Valentine’s Day when they decide to swoop on just about any young couple walking hand in hand and on shops selling cards for special occasions.
From what one has gathered about the latest legislation against smoking—forced by a court order—it does look certain that this time the government is more serious than it ever was in enforcing and implementing the law. To achieve that aim a number of people—officers, managers and members of NGOs among them—will be given the authority to detect cases of violation of the anti-smoking law and also realise fines from those who violate it.
What it means is that the size of the vigilante groups will be restricted; just about anybody who objects to smoking will not have the power to pull up an errant smoker. Whether that helps meet the aim of the anti-smoking law remains to be seen. Doubts about the usefulness of such a measure have already been raised, and not just by sceptics. The ban on smoking in public places has been in force for almost a decade. Obviously either most people did not take it seriously or were simply ignorant about it because it was one law where news of conviction did not travel to the media. People are not aware of any conviction on charges of smoking in a public place.
Consider a likely case that may not really be hypothetical. In a government office a middle-level officer has been entrusted with the onerous task of keeping an eye on the defiant smokers. First of all, will the government make sure that this officer is himself not given to this vice? Then, what happens when the mutinous smoker happens to be ladder up the hierarchy—an officer senior in rank? In many government offices there is someone who is above the rank of bureaucrats; many think this tribe is above the law: the politician.
Reporting their seniors is not a tradition with Indians. If someone does, he or she has to be ready for facing some very unpleasant consequences that may have a bearing on one’s career. The union health minister Dr Ambumani Ramdoss’s crusade against smoking and use of tobacco may be laudable but he cannot be unaware of the fact that many politicians and some of his ministerial colleagues are regular smokers. They cannot be expected to come out of their well-appointed rooms to take a puff. And only a foolish junior official will dare to take note of their indiscretion in smoking at a public place.
Everybody knows about the harm that comes from smoking cigarettes and the use of tobacco in many other forms. Nearly 3000 lives are reportedly lost everyday due to tobacco-related diseases, cancer being the most prominent among them. The passive smokers can also suffer from diseases that afflict active smokers.
Ambumani Ramdoss has had one of his wishes fulfilled and had a ban on smoking scenes imposed on the cinema industry, despite all the hue and cry from the cine artists and others who thought the minister was taking his mission too far.
But what about betel (paan)-chewing and the users of ‘khaini’? The minister and crusaders against smoking and tobacco use may not be unaware that chewing of tobacco is equally harmful and this practice is very popular in rural areas and amongst the poor in urban areas. Apart from any other danger that they carry, the users of paan and ‘khaini’ are a source of nuisance. There are few office walls and staircases, not to mention streets that do not bear their imprint with ugly reddish spit.
The minister cannot think of any crusade against these practices because it opens him to the charge of assaulting an ancient practice. Also his own vote bank in Tamilnadu where chewing a pan is a common habit. So, he can do no more than issue warnings about the danger from pan chewing.
The Ayatollahs among the non-smokers are not impressed by the government’s latest fiat against smoking in public places because they think there is no alternative to an outright ban on the sale of tobacco products. Actually, they could go a little further and demand a ban on the cultivation and import of tobacco!
As long as cigarettes and other tobacco products are sold openly the practice of smoking will prevail. At best there may be a slight reduction. In a country of the size and population of India a small drop in the number of smokers will not bother the manufacturers too much and they will continue to manufacture their full range of tobacco products.
The diehard smoker in any case is not going to be deterred by a paltry fine (Rs 200) or the fact that he or she has to look for a ‘safer’ place to enjoy his/her smoke. The provision for fine may open new vistas for the corrupt. And between the earth and the sky there is a very vast open space where a pipe can be smoked in peace. |
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