17 December,2010 07:27 AM IST | | Shashank Shekhar
In a gross violation of the Supreme Court's directive, government has decided to persist with existing designs for another year'Paan-Indian' movement delays implementation
If you hadn't caught the smoke signals, here's an RTI response to make the big picture clearer. According to it, top tobacco companies and representatives of the industry have been pressurising the health ministry to abandon or at least postpone the implementation of gory pictorial warnings on tobacco packets.
The images of a black scorpion on bidi packs and cancer-affected lungs on cigarette packets was to be replaced by a more graphic cancerous mouth according to a ministry of health and family welfare notification. The pictorial warnings are to be rotated every year. New warnings were to replace the image of a scorpion on the tobacco products from December 1. The Union Cabinet last week deferred the stricter warnings by a year.
Smokescreen
In the RTI reply the Health Ministry also admits to have received anti-pictorial warning representations from leading tobacco giants like the ITC, Tobacco Institute of India, Zafrani Zarda, Reliable Cigarettes and Tobacco Industry, All India Bidi Industry Federation and Aurangabad Bidi Merchants' Association.
The RTI revealed that the tobacco lobby has also approached Ghulam Nabi Azad to delay the implementation. Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily, received a letter from Paan Shops Owners Association of India dated, March 25, 2010. Subject of the letter was "severe business impact on small retailer paan shops due to new health warning". The association comprises retailers of cigarettes, bidis, chewing tobacco and beetle leaf.
'You've got mail'
Shockingly on March 31 this year, Moily forwarded the said representation on his AICC letterhead to Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, saying: "I am forwarding the presentation regarding a new health warning for action as appropriate."
In the letter to Moily, association president R Sankar Rao argued against pictorial warnings. "Due to graphic tobacco warnings, our retailers have seen a decline in the business of our members. About 60 to 70 per cent of the business of these shopkeepers comes from tobacco products but the impact has been felt beyond just these products as customers are not visiting these outlets. We sincerely hope you will give due consideration to the voice of aam aadmi, that is to defer the introduction of the new health warnings."
The Health Ministry also admits to have received anti-pictorial warning representations from tobacco giants like the ITC and Tobacco Institute of India. Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had committed on several occasions - and as recently as November 9 he had told Parliament - about enforcement of the new notified pictorial warnings from December 1.
No if, no butt
Anti-tobacco group Health for Millions Trust has now moved the SC against the government violating its own commitment to suit business interests of certain tobacco lobbies. While other anti-tobacco groups allege that many ministers are aiding tobacco giants for pushing the implementation date behind.
Tobacco majors have argued that they have large unsold stocks and must be allowed to expend these before the warnings are changed. They threatened to maintain the current halt on fresh production - a move that can impact the labour intensive industry including cultivators.
Laying down the law
Even as the government apparently backed down under pressure, the Supreme Court recently banned plastic packaging for tobacco products. In a reference to the fight against cancer, the court said that unlike the government, it could not remain a mute spectator to the public health menace and asked the government to implement the order by March, even if it "brings the entire tobacco industry to a standstill."
Gutkha and pan masala, two tobacco products, are sold in small plastic pouches which when discarded clog sewage lines and are seen as a health hazard, presumably because it backs up waste water.
India is a signatory to the International Tobacco Control Treaty, which requires all parties to implement stronger evidence, based pictorial health warnings. Countries like Australia, Belgium, Chile and Hong Kong have implemented strong pictorial health warnings, whereas Brazil rotates the pictures every five months.
India is also the world's second-largest producer and consumer of tobacco behind China, according to the American Cancer Society and the World Lung Foundation.
| Joining ranks |
| In a recent survey on effective implementation of tobacco warning by countries that are signatory to Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, India is ranked 100th - out of 175 countries - whereas Pakistan is on the 40th position. Countries like Brazil, Canada, Pakistan and Bangladesh have a much stronger pictorial warning than India. |
| Picture this |
| India was required to implement pictorial health warnings - within three years of coming into force of Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) - on February 27, 2008. Though it had already notified field tested effective pictorial health warnings in July 2006, a set of mild and ineffective warnings were introduced from May 31, 2009, which was more than 15 months after the treaty deadline. The warnings are to be rotated every 12 months, for which a new set of field tested pictorial health warnings were notified in March. However, their implementation - that was due on June 1, 2010 - was deferred to December 1, 2010. Now the wait has been prolonged till December 2011. |
| Huff and puff |
| Former Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss has written to the PM, expressing concern over the shoddy implementation of the new pictorial health warnings on tobacco products. He alleged that the implementation of rotation for pictorial health warnings, one of the key strategies to create awareness on the adverse health impacts of tobacco, was ineffective. "Tobacco kills almost a million people every year in India," he said in the letter. |
