On 15 December 2006, GK Sanghi had raised the question in Rajya Sabha about Government's response to the 'beedi' workers agitating against the proposed printing of skull and bones on 'beedi' packs. In May 2007, Gutkha (chewing tobacco) manufacturers in India were attempting to get a court injunction to delay the directive requiring all tobacco products to carry health warnings. Another interesting attempt was made in the same month (May 2007) when External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee suggested in his letter that the sign will likely offend the Muslim community, who are employed in the beedi industry of Murshidabad, as they unlike Hindus bury their dead, and do not burn them. Another major move to water down the Indian Cigarette and other tobacco products Act also happened in May 2007 when Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi called on the central government to defer implementation of the legislation, saying that "the move has threatened the livelihood of 1.5 million beedi workers in the State." Karunanidhi said beedi manufacturers in the State have stopped production with some tobacco industry players threatening to go on an indefinite strike from 1 June 2007 if the Act is enforced. Also in May 2007, The Karnataka Beedi Association in India said that the directive to print skull and bones on beedi packs would result in a steep decline in beedi sales adversely affecting the welfare of beedi workers. The All India Beedi Industry Federation had also written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that the 2 October 2008 smoking ban has made things tough for the beedi industry. Meanwhile, "we have told the Prime Minister ... that a forced printing of the pictoral (cancer) warning "- will lead to a further decline in sales by 30%," had said Rajnikant Patel, president of the All India Beedi Industry Federation to the media.
As per the World Health Organization (WHO)'s MPOWER Report (2008), despite conclusive evidence, relatively few tobacco users understand the full extent of their health risk. Graphic warnings on tobacco packaging deter tobacco use, yet only 15 countries, representing 6% of the world's population, mandate pictorial warnings (covering at least 30% of the principal surface area) and just five countries with a little over 4% of the world's people, meet the highest standards for pack warnings.
"The bidi workers, majority of whom are bidi smokers, are in favour of pictorial health warnings on bidi packets. About 73 percent of the workers agreed that bidis are harmful to health and 79 percent felt that picture based warnings are important on bidi packets, at least to protect the younger generation,' according to the study conducted by the Voluntary Health Association of India (Source: IANS, 3 November 2008).
The fight to enforce public health policies, and put a check on industry interference, is clearly a long uphill battle indeed.
Bobby Ramakant
(The author is a World Health Organization (WHO)'s WNTD Awardee 2008, a member of Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT) and can be contacted at: bobbyramakant@yahoo.com)
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