Good Health a National Priority and Tobacco Control

Right to life under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution has been liberally interpreted to mean the right to live with dignity and decency. Take your Rights and Do your Duties! 

Jyotsna Roy When I was a child I took two blotters from my Grandfather’s table in the district hospital. Blotters were used for drying ink from fountain pens. These pieces were about 4” by 6” with the rough pink blotting paper on one side and a picture on the other.  Generally these were distributed as IEC material for products being promoted. So, one blotter had the picture of a black pair of lungs and the other had an almost blue heart. I asked my Grandfather questions while trying to understand the pictures.  He told me that the tree kind of picture was a pair of lungs that has numerous small pockets in which old breath is cleaned by oxygen. How did the black tar get into the lungs? I asked. I knew tar because the road inside the hospital was being coated with Coal tar to make access easy for the patients. 

My Grandfather explained that the people who regularly smoked bidi, cigarette, cigar, pipes, and hookah and worked in brick kilns and so on can get their lungs filled with the tar from smoke and residue like ash from the bidi, cigarette or other things. Hmm okay then what happens?  My Grandfather said there will be no place for fresh breaths, no oxygen to clean the blood and the person who has such a pair of lungs will get sick, if the smoking is not stopped then very sick and then the person may not be able to live. Because we cannot live without breathing fresh air. Till then I had neither seen a death near me nor had I seen a dead body so dying was not mentioned. It was too much for me but I knew No Bidi, No Cigarettes near our house and on the large compound of the hospital. 

Each time I saw the Nursing staff take a bidi break I would march up to them and hands on my hips in an authoritative voice, blotter in hand, I would tell them “No smoking. Bidi phenkiye Harilal jee. Apka phephada kala ho jayega aur aap ko saans nahi aayegi”. The same for the fellow called “Baghwa” because he had fought a pack of hyenas but he had begun wheezing. The lady sanitation worker who was very beautiful and tied bidi in the sari pallu and smoked after she had finished her work. I learnt to smell and follow the smell of the smoke and find them!!! 

A few days later I asked my Grandfather about the bluish heart picture. He kept my hand on his chest and made me feel the beat of the heart and the rising and falling of the lungs. Practical class now! After I could differentiate the two he explained the heart and its main function of taking blood that has oxygen to the rest of the body, head to my little toes. If there was no oxygen from the lungs there will be no clean blood and the heart will become sick. And how do the lungs become black? By smoking. I learnt my first major lesson in health from my Physician Grandfather. I kept my blotters in my Grandfather’s office at home and would take them out if I smelled Tobacco smoke.   Lessons learnt early in childhood remain with most people and shape their behaviours as they grow older.  Most people then thought I will grow up to be a Doctor, others said I would be a lawyer, but I grew up being an Advocate for Healthy Lives among other roles.    

It is frightening to know that 27 crore people, in India, smoke tobacco and 13 lakh mortality is reported from Tobacco smoking related deaths, which are Non Communicable Diseases largely. Tobacco is not the dagger that kills the smoker who loves it and becomes dependent on it. It opens the doors for other diseases that become the dagger and Tobacco does not get convicted as a killer. 

India is too is a signatory to the Sustainable Development Goals. SDG Target 3.4 aims to reduce by one third premature mortality from non-communicable diseases through prevention and treatment and promote mental health and well-being. Tobacco use has been named as one of the major factors in the premature mortality among both the sexes and largely of those who are of productive and earning age groups. A direct relationship can be established between Tobacco use and major killer NCDs viz. cardiovascular diseases, cancers, respiratory diseases, and diabetes. These four groups of diseases account for over 80% of all premature NCD deaths and the red flags have been raised about the risk factors Tobacco use, Sugar and junk food, Alcohol and  sedentary lifestyles which have no fresh air and exercise. 

Tobacco smoking has achieved the coming of age symbol, a style symbol, a stress buster symbol, thought clarity prop and only the smokers know what else. I see it as hard earned money going up in smoke.  The Youth of the country becoming hooked on Tobacco smoking is a challenge.  Optimistically, the solution lies in the challenge itself. 

The Young India Network’s Youth for Wellbeing campaign on Good Health:  A National Priority, initiated and guided by Nada India Foundation is a step towards addressing the multi layered complex systemic conditions that allow  easy availability of Tobacco products due to porous strategies, taxes, revenue for states, influencing  GST, surrogate advertising, and weak enforcement and so on. 

The animation and action of youth with guidance from the committed Faculty and staff of Punjab University in partnership with the Young India Network can achieve exemplar results by advocating with decision makers and implementers. At the same time they are role models and campaigners among their peers to prevent them from being dependent on Tobacco or any other substance like alcohol and unhealthy food etc.

To conclude, the coronavirus disease named, COVID-19, has put back the much needed focus on health systems and preparedness. And a compromised pulmonary and respiratory systems leads to increased burdens on the health systems and the paltry budgetary allocation for Health can stretch only so much if not increased. Right to life under Article 21 of the Indian Constitution has been liberally interpreted to mean the right to live with dignity and decency. Take your Rights and Do your Duties! 

YO YOUNG PEOPLEZ!!! 

STOP SMOKING: LIVE HEALTHY HAPPY!!!

SAVE THE DOUGH & SEE THE WORLD ON THE GO!!

DO GOOD!!