Slipping out a smoke from a pack can now be a self-humiliating public experience for smokers. Their carton of cigarettes certainly won’t be the same impressively designed packs that it used to be. Starting yesterday, May 31, which was observed as World No Tobacco Day, tobacco product packages will be anything but inviting.
Adhering to government order, all tobacco products in the country will have to carry pictorial warnings of the health effects of lighting up. These images will be anything but pleasant, images such as diseased lungs, blocked arteries, cancer-affected areas of the body etc are already used as graphic warningson tobacco products in various countries around the globe.
The Population Services International (PSI) along with HRIDAY – SHAN (Health Related Information Dissemination Amongst Youth – Student Health Action Network) organised a play in a city mall to encourage people to support pictorial warnings on tobacco products. The idea was ‘infotainment’, where people would be entertained and informed at the same time. The play was performed by a group of zealous young amateur theatre artistes from the group, Mukta foundation. The play had in it a typical college situation, where youngsters battle peer pressure to smoke.
But fortunately in the play there are few voices of reason in the peer group who show a prospective smoker the truth about smoking. “The best part about this play is the fact that all of us in the group are between the ages of 18 and 20. We go through the same kind of peer pressure as anyone else in college, but we are here to tell teenagers not to pick up this deadly habit,” says a very optimistic Vivian Roger, one of the members of the team who feels that 99 per cent of those who watched the play will snuff the puff.
Vinay N, who is also part of the play, feels that the focus of the play and the initiative isn’t just to get smokers to stop, but to stop young people from picking up the habit: “There are around 5,500 people who give smoking a try every day and it’s these people also that we are targeting. We want them to stop before they try their first puff.”
Krupa SK, another young theatre artiste, talking about being part of the play says, “Visuals always have a far greater impact than words. That’s why I think the pictorial warnings will have a great response. Also, that’s precisely the reason why we have chosen to enact a play instead of just telling people verbally, we are certain that a play will be accepted more willingly by people and many will remember what they have seen.”
Umesh Yadav, a volunteer in the initiative, giving a thumbs up to the rule of pictorial warning on tobacco products says, “The difference between the law against smoking in public spaces and pictorial warnings is that this will be more personal and will make a smoker think about what he is doing to his body. A smoker will himself feel repulsed and he may be embarrassed to pull out a pack of cigarettes in front of friends and family.”
Another supporter of the pictorial warnings on tobacco products is Kiran Thejaswi from PSI. Thejaswi feels that the step will definitely deter urban youth from taking up the habit. “Forty per cent of space on a cigarette carton or a tobacco product now has to have graphic warnings on them, and if this is not followed, people can definitely take action. More than just repelling smokers, this step will help keep those who might have contemplated giving in to peer pressure and begin smoking.”
Niranjan H, another volunteer from the play, warns that the fuss isn’t only about cigarettes: “We want everyone using tobacco in whichever form to kick the habit, this isn’t only about cigarettes.” He further gives out interesting facts that he found out while preparing for the play: “Fifty per cent of tobacco users will die due to tobacco-related deaths and India has the largest number of patients suffering from oral cancer.”
He then concludes with the apt signature line of the play: “Choose life, not tobacco.”
