1. Pursuit of Happyness
Smoke-Free Challenges—An
Indian Perspective
Karthik Subbaraman, Dr. Prakash C Gupta
Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health
UICC World Cancer Congress, 2008
Geneva, Switzerland
2. The Global Smoke-free Status
l Thirty-one countries (18%) have established
comprehensive smoke-free policies
l Twenty-five countries (15%) are planning to implement
smoke-free policies by 2008 or 2009
l Fifty-one countries (30%) are making significant
progress with smoke-free policies
l Sixty-five countries (38%) have limited or no smoke-
free policies
3. The Smoke-free Status in India
The Ministry of Family
Health and Welfare of
India passed a smoke-
free notification on May
30, 2008.
The smoke-free legislation
is scheduled to come into
effect from October 2,
2008.
4. General overview of the situation..
Policy influencer
Policy advocate Policy makers
Enforcer The Bad Guy
Public
7. Political pressure thwarts India anti-smoking move
(Friday 20th July 2007) By Kamil Zaheer
NEW DELHI, July 20 (Reuters) - Political pressure has blocked a plan to put graphic
pictorial warnings on cigarette packets, India's health minister said on Friday,
seen as key in reducing the nearly 1 million deaths a year due to tobacco use.
"There has been a lot of pressure from all parties," Health Minister Anbumani
Ramadoss told reporters. "The chief ministers have written, lot of ministers have
come, MPs have given representations," Ramadoss said, after receiving an award
from the World Health Organization for his efforts to fight the widespread use of
tobacco products in India.
But opposition from politicians, including federal and state ministers, and
some ruling Congress party MPs led a group of ministers dealing with the plan
to delay and dilute its implementation.
Ramadoss said the government planned to strictly enforce existing laws banning
smoking in public places such as restaurants, bus stops and railway stations, and
ensure no one smoked in any workplace including factories.
But political leaders from Andhra Pradesh, where thousands of people are employed
in the tobacco industry, said the move for pictorial warnings would hurt the poor.
"We know smoking is injurious to health but putting such health symbols will
hamper the job opportunities of hundreds of thousands of rural workers," said
Andhra Pradesh labour minister G. Vinod.
8. The Policy makers
Challenge 2 = Neglect of Public Health
Challenge 3 = Implementation gap
Challenge 4 = Growing apathy in the system
10. Challenge 5 = Media Volume—growing
threat?
63,229 registered newspapers published in more than 22 languages in India
Favor private news organizations over public news organizations (64% and
57%, respectively)
Media type Rural reach Urban reach
(in %) (in %)
Television 38 75
Radio 18 20
Print 15 35
Cinema 5 12
11. Paid media efforts, then and now
Eighteenth century smoking
advertisement in India July 19, 2008
12. Advertisement industry in India
Indian tobacco manufacturing companies diversifying into
non-tobacco products like
¡ Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG)
¡ Real estate
¡ Hospitality
A closer look at the advertising trends in newspaper and television
provides a possible insight into their reasons for doing so.
13. Trends in the Indian Advertisement
Industry
l According to a media analysis conducted in 2007, real estate and
FMCGs ranks first in the advertisements posted on newspapers and
television, respectively
l Interestingly, there was no specific allocation for health-related
information dissemination in both newspapers and television;
further, the Central government or State-government related
promotions ranked least in the newspaper advertisements
l Challenge 6 = Negligible media priority for
health-policy related information coupled with
increased growth and diversification of the
tobacco industry
14. Entertainment industry—Bollywood
There is a very close association between the largest entertainment
industry in India and the increasing disregard for health concerns
due to smoking amongst Indian youth
The Bollywood is growing at an average growth rate of 25% per year;
this amplifies the potential reach of the entertainment industry within
India and globally
Challenge 7 = Role models for smoking behavior
and acceptability
18. Summary of smoke-free challenges
l Challenge 1 = Illiteracy
l Challenge 2 = Neglect of Public Health
l Challenge 3 = Implementation gap
l Challenge 4 = Growing apathy in the system
l Challenge 5 = Media Volume—growing threat?
l Challenge 6 = Negligible media priority for health-policy related information
coupled with increased growth and diversification of the tobacco industry
l Challenge 7 = Role models for smoking behavior and acceptability
l Challenge 8 = Lack of synergy amongst policy advocates
19. The problem, the victim, and the solution
the Tiger
(EMPOWERED)
the Elephant
(PROBLEM)
and the Cell phone
(SOLUTION)
20. “I THINK WHAT IT REALLY SHOWS IS THAT NO
MATTER WHAT YOU SET YOUR IMAGINATION TO,
YOU CAN DO IT”
