Panaji: NOTE Flays Delay in Printing Pictorial Tobacco Warnings
Daijiworld World Media Network - Panaji
Panaji, Jan 17: An NGO actively working in the field of tobacco eradication has condemned the tactics adopted by central government in postponing the implementation of pictorial warning on tobacco products.
"In spite of an urgent call for action by the Shimla high court and the civil society the government has not indicated a final decision on the date of nature of warning. It was deferred from June 1, 2007 and postponed four times thereafter," lamented National Organisation for Tobacco Eradication (NOTE).
NOTE, a prominent anti-tobacco NGO, which hogged the limelight for its cases against mega stars Amitabh Bacchan and Shahrukh Khan accusing them of promoting tobacco products, said that tobacco claims around 1 million lives per year in India.
NOTE general secretary Dr Shekhar Salkar said that the toll is likely to exceed to 2 million per year in the next 20 years. "Unsuspecting poor and illiterate people form the major chunk amongst the victims. Rampant illiteracy demands the need to display pictorial warnings on the products. However, the government has turned a nelson's eye to the reality, obviously bowing before the dictates of tobacco lobby," he alleged.
The NGO has said that both the tobacco industry and the government have a duty to provide a clear communication of health risks of tobacco use to potential and current consumers.
"The government of India seems to have fallen prey to the argument of the tobacco industry that the display of pictorial warnings would invite decline in consumption, thereby causing unemployment. This is manifestly untrue as the decline in consumption is likely to be remain steady for next two decades," he said.
"Moreover, it will be offset by growth in population," Dr Salkar added.
Pictorial warnings have been introduced in several developing and neighboring nations like Thailand, Singapore, Brazil, Chile, South Africa and others.
A Group of Ministers (GOM) has been convened by the Prime Minister to examine the issue. This group includes Pranab Mukharjee, minister for external affairs, Jaipal Reddy, minister for urban developmentt, Priyaranjan Dasmunshi, minister for parliamentary affairs, Kamal Nath, minister for commerce, Oscar Fernandes, minister of state for labour and employment and Dr Ambumani Ramdoss, minister for health and family welfare.
The organization has feared that the GOM is likely to be biased in favour of the tobacco lobby. "Pranab Mukharjee for instance has a massive presence of bidi workers in his constituency. Andhra Pradesh, from where Jaypal Reddy hails, is also a tobacco growing state," Salkar has said in a press release here.
He said that the display of pictorial warnings will not result in instant decline in sales. The same will be slow and the companies will have ample time to shift to other greener pastures in terms of production and employment.
The total tobacco industry today is worth 45,000 crore and public loss from tobacco-related diseases is 30,000 crore. Another 15,000 crore is spent on tobacco consumption. Thus, the industry as such cannot be called productive or revenue generating especially at the cost of million innocent lives, he added.