Till death do us part

Moumita Das

I have many friends mocking at health. They dismiss health advises as something mundane and boring. They say death kills slowly, well who is in hurry. A cigarette is injurious to health, let’s take time to finish it. You finish a packet and I finish one. And I continue to wonder, is it really valorous to play with life? Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss had given deadline to all pubs and discos to make separate enclosure for smoking by 2nd October. Now all organizations and institutions have also been asked to follow the dictum. Certainly Gandhiji’s soul would be happy if the diktat of Health Minister is seriously enforced. The pub owners were perplexed with the dearth of space, and wondered which portions could be converted to smoking enclosure. Since the Minister did not provide any fixed corner for smoking, it came down to dampening their business. Smoking and drinking are certainly an individual`s choice, but at what cost? While the husband or father smokes, the wife and children around him smoke passively. What sort of freedom can we call this? I have many times witnessed people smoking in public places. Raise an alarm and they will only ogle at you, giving a damn to your protests. Never have I seen them being taken into custody for the violation of this rule. When Ramadoss barred screening smoking scenes from movies, it was definitely an attack on creative production. How can one project a `Devdas` without his bottle or villain without cigarettes? In 2001 Tobacco Products Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation Bill was proposed in Parliament to impose a total ban on sponsoring of sports and cultural events by cigarette and other tobacco product companies. Pramod Mahajan, the then Broadcast Minister said that no person shall engage in smoking in public places once the bill is enacted. Mahajan sought to defend the decision of the Government to introduce such a bill by pointing out that nearly one-third of the three million tobacco-related deaths worldwide occurred in India. He further said that to provide treatment to persons suffering from tobacco-related diseases nearly Rs 14,000 crore was required which is much more than what is earned by the production and sale of tobacco products. In the budget speech this year health department sought to levy a cess on tobacco products. It was proposed that the specific rate on cigarettes be increased by about 10% and a surcharge of 10% ad valorem be imposed on other tobacco products including gutka, chewing tobacco, snuff and pan masala. However, bidis were kept out of this levy. During the 61st meet on 12 September, 2008 of Health Ministers from South East Asian countries and World Health Organisation experts also called for stricter laws, improved implementation of these laws and increased taxes to help reduce tobacco abuse in the region. Anyways, all we can say is, the death of an addict is remembered by none while death of a soldier would be remembered by all. It`s better not to die unsung. Other than forbidding the effect, will it not be wise that the cause be checked? Can the Health Minister not put a ban on the production of tobacco other than banning its use in public.