Editorial: Going up in smoke

Earlier this week, the University Grants Commission had directed all Higher Education Institutes to follow in letter and spirit, the Centre’s new framework to create a tobacco-free ecosystem in campuses. Apart from enforcing a ban on smoking within college premises, the sale of tobacco products within 100 yards of an educational institution is also prohibited. In spite of this, the usage of tobacco among the youth continues in a troubling manner.

A study released last year called Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) 2019 said 8.5% of students (9.6% boys and 7.4% girls) in India use tobacco. It also said that 8.3% of boys had picked up smoking tobacco as opposed to 6.2% girls. Also 45% of those who bought a cigarette from the neighbourhood paan vendor or street shop were not refused the product on account of their age. To top this, almost 40% of smokers were initiated into the habit before they hit the age of 10 years. The school-based pan-India survey covers students in the age bracket of 13-15 years.

Back in the 80’s and 90s, when the consumption of cigarettes by matinee idols was considered to be the epitome of cool, media of all kinds were rife with ads of tobacco products. It was amidst this blitzkrieg of advocacy to push tobacco into the mainstream that a public service announcement unlike any that India had ever seen before was unveiled. Gary Lawyer, a popular name on India’s western music circuit was tasked with conceptualising an anti-smoking jingle called, With a cigarette in my hand, I felt like a man. The well-intentioned and highly praised campaign aimed to strike at the hearts of the most vulnerable and the impressionable users within the smokers demographic – the youth.

The role of cinema in propagating such vices was highlighted by a UN report, which said the display of tobacco branding exploded in Bollywood films after the ban on advertising of tobacco products in all other Indian media in 2004. Of the 395 top-grossing films released in India between 1990–2002, 76% depicted tobacco use. And reinforcing star power, tobacco incidents attributed to the lead actors increased from 22% in 1991 to 54% in 2002.

Needless to say, there’s a humongous socio-economic toll exacted by the dependence on this national pastime. Smoking and exposure to second-hand smoke are responsible for the deaths of about 1.2 million Indians each year. Concurrently, smokeless tobacco claims over 2,30,000 lives annually. While 27% of all cases of cancer in the country is attributable to tobacco use, the nation by itself holds the dubious distinction of accounting for 70% of the global burden of smokeless tobacco, as per data in the public domain.

Apart from knocking off 6-10 years from the average lifespan of citizens, there is also a clear impact on the nation’s GDP. Between 2017–2018, the economic cost of tobacco-attributable disease and deaths in India was pegged at $27.5 billion. This includes the direct healthcare costs amounting to 22% of the said amount, and 78% of indirect costs, resulting from loss of productivity due to illness and death. The total cost of tobacco-induced losses equate to 1.04% of India’s GDP, and the direct medical costs equate to 5.3% of India’s total health expenditure. And in spite of that, tobacco still means big business in India.

It will take a gargantuan effort on part of the government to help the 4.5 crore farm workers and stakeholders in the tobacco industry, which is worth Rs 11.79 lakh crore, transition from the cigarette, bidi and gutkha sectors to alternative sources of income. While that obviously is something easier said than done, the least that we can do is to stunt the use of tobacco among the youth and set the right example by weaning adults off the habit, starting from the home front.