NTCP just goes up in smoke

Tobacco Control Cells missing in several districts

Warangal: It’s been more than a decade since the Indian government became an important signatory to the WHO’s Framework Convention for Tobacco Control (FCTC) but several measures to discourage the use of cigarettes, other tobacco products and to protect non-smokers from second-hand smoke, remained on paper due to gross negligence on the part of successive governments.

Next only to China, India is the second largest producer and consumer of tobacco in the world with over 275 million tobacco users. Ten per cent of world’s smokers are in India. According to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), tobacco consumption is responsible for half of all the cancers in men and a quarter of all cancers in women in the country.

According to a medical survey, of the six million people who die every year across the globe due to tobacco use, eight to nine lakh people are from India. It was also found that nearly six lakh people die due to second hand smoke or passive smoking in the world. Notwithstanding this fact, the monitoring of tobacco use and prevention policies in adherence to the guidelines of the National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) and Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, 2003 (COTPA) across the State is far from encouraging.

Dr Srinivas Ramaka, the recipient of WHO SEARO Regional Director’s Special Appreciation Award for World No Tobacco Day 2013, who has been conducting community cardiology programmes, especially targeting the prevention of tobacco use, through his Srinivasa Heart Foundation in Warangal, said that the country needs the support of everyone to achieve 30 per cent reduction in tobacco consumption by 2020 if it wants to fulfill the WHO’s goal of reducing premature mortality from non communicable diseases by 25 per cent by 2025.

Concerned over the increasing economic costs attributable to tobacco use from all diseases in the country, Dr Srinivas wanted to know through the RTI Act whether the operational guidelines of the NTCP are being followed or not in Telangana State. The answers he got from some of the nodal agencies – Chief Secretary, Prinicpal Secretary (Health), DM&HO, Superintendent of Police, DEO, DIO, Labour Officer and Municipal Commissioner - for the implementation of the NTCP were startling.

Though these agencies expressed existence of NTCP guidelines, the fact revealed through the RTI was that there was no District Tobacco Control Cell in any of the 10 districts of the State. The answers received pointed out that officers had no directions from their higher ups. Some of the queries made to the DM&HOs in the State: 1. Is there a District Tobacco Control Cell (DTCC) in your district? If so, is it in the district hospital? 2.

Whether there was an effort in asking the district authorities for space for setting up the DTCC. Has space been provided by the district authorities for setting up the DTCC? It may be mentioned here that the guidelines of NTCP envisage the formation of State, District and Village Level Coordination Committees.

By:Adepu Mahender