Minors smoke near campuses

Published on November 4, 2008 7:12 AM

Three weeks have already passed since the Centre announced the prohibition on smoking in public areas. Although ‘no-smoking’ boards are placed at most of the notified public places, the authorities have failed to quit the sale of tobacco products to minors.

Even college and school authorities haven’t been able to prevent sale of tobacco products within 200-metre radius from their buildings, with cigarette stalls operating close.

Last December, according to a study conducted by the Institute of Public Health (IPH), which researched data based on some pre-university colleges in Bangalore, around 15.66% students have used tobacco products at least once and 5.33% are smokers.

Lately, IPH began another study on tobacco usage in pre-university colleges here. Upendra Bhojani, faculty, IPH said: “With permission from the state pre-university department, we started a study on tobacco usage among students. It is funded by Ratan Tata Trust and Institute for Social and Economic Change. Over the last three weeks, we observed that students still have easy access to tobacco products, since tobacco stalls continue to remain close to colleges, such as National Pre-University College and St Joseph’s College. The ban on selling tobacco products to minors or near educational institutes has been in force ever since the enforcement of the Tobacco Control Act in 2005, but has failed to be efficiently implemented.”

While the Union and state health ministries are burning the midnight oil to prevent tobacco addiction among youth, this carelessness in enforcing the rule by some educational institutes has remained a hurdle. It remains to be seen whether authorities take action against the stalls.