After Shimla was declared smoke free city in 2010, it was now the turn of the entire State of Himachal Pradesh, when the State Government on Tuesdaydeclared it as ‘Smoke Free,’ where tobacco and cigarette use in public and work places have reduced to the set the parameters.
Health Minister Kaul Singh Thakur said that the State had been declared ‘Smoke Free’ in compliance to section 4 of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Product Act (COTPA), 2003 in a technical and scientific survey done by department of community medicine, IGMC, Shimla and population research centre of Himachal Pradesh University (HPU).
While signing the declaration for smoke free State, Thakur said that in Himachal Pradesh more than 2500 Panchayats of the State had complied to the provisions of COTPA and at present 93 percent compliance of the act was being ensured by education department followed by 91 percent compliance by health department and 87 percent by transport department, which indicates of the initiatives of the State Government to eradicate smoking and intake of tobacco related products.
He added that apart from the Panchayats, 57 development blocks of the state have also passed resolutions of their blocks being smoke free. “Though these resolutions are merely paper works but lot more work is needed to change the mindset and smoking habits of village people,” said Thakur.
He said that in hill States like Himachal, the people mainly in hard and rural areas believe that intake of tobacco products were part of their routine and help to keep them warm during winters but actually their myth is to be broken and they were to be made aware that as many as 2500 people die of intake of tobacco related products and alcohol, every day.
“The need of the hour was to educate and create awareness among the rural masses of the State and make them aware of the ill-effects of consuming tobacco related products, then only we can claim of making the State totally smokefree,” said Thakur.
The minister said that Bilaspur, Mandi and Shimla districts had ensured 92 percent compliance of the act, which needs to be enhanced to 100%. He also lauded the efforts of HP Voluntary Health Association (HPVHA), International Union, the department of community medicine, IGMC for initiating the measures to make Himachal Pradesh ‘Smoke Free’ and said that Himachal Pradesh was the second hill state after Sikkim which has been made smoke free.
He said that the state government in 1997 had made a legislation named Himachal Pradesh Non-Smokers Protection Act. He said that together with HPVHA, department of health services with help of International Union, Himachal Government introduced COTPA in 2003 and awareness campaigns were launched on large scale in Panchayats and Gram Sabhas to make people aware of ill-effects of tobacco.
Srinivas Joshi, consultant, HPVHA gave detailed presentation pertaining to initiatives taken by the association and revealed that as per survey 31 percent of children die due to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) in the country because of passive smoking.
Joshi said in 2013 the state has done well and achieved compliance of 85.42% as per COPTA. State in its annual budget, 2013-14 had enhanced the tax on Bidis from existing 11 percent to 22 percent and on cigarettes the tax was increased from 18 to 36 percent plus 4 percent VAT on each.