JOIN US Demanding a ban on chewing tobacco in Karnataka, BJP MLA S Suresh Kumar wondered why the State government, which had taken a step in this direction, had backtracked from enforcing it.
Addressing the media in Bengaluru on Thursday, Kumar said that despite Health Minister U T Khader proposing to ban chewing tobacco, for reasons not known, the government had not effected the ban. He said the file pertaining to the ban had been cleared on November 6, 2014, and it was supposed to come before the State Cabinet for approval. “A Cabinet note was also prepared. But the matter has been kept pending,” he said.
He said Karnataka had earned the tag of being the capital of oral cancer in India, with 50,000 cases of deaths reported due to cancer every year. As many as 50 per cent of these deaths were related to chewing tobacco. A World Health Organisation report released by the Karnataka government in 2012 states that around 28 per cent people in the State were addicted to tobacco, with a majority addicted to chewing tobacco. He said Karnataka was spending Rs 983 crore every year on the treatment of tobacco-related diseases.
Kumar said that despite a directive from the Union Health Ministry in 2014, asking the states to ban all forms of processed, flavoured, scented chewing tobacco, going by the name or form of gutka and zarda, such products were being sold in individual packets in open markets.
States such as Maharashtra, Mizoram, Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir had banned chewing tobacco products. Karnataka should follow suit and ban the same as per the rules of the Food Quality and Standards Act.
“The ban on chewing tobacco will not affect the livelihood of farmers in the State, for most of the tobacco grown in Karnataka is either being exported or used in beedi manufacturing. Protecting public health is the responsibility of the State government. It is more important than the revenue being earned,” he said.
He said the Central Tobacco Research Institute, which was researching on the alternative crops to tobacco, had mooted inter-cropping and mixed-cropping methods.
2 new cases every day
Oncologist Vishal Rao said the prevalence of cancer was high and that cancer specialists saw at least two new cases every day. He said tobacco chewers, mostly hailing from economically poor backgrounds, were drowning in debts, not being able to afford treatment for their diseases.
“Though treating cancer patients is the livelihood of oncologists, there isn’t a day that goes by without us hoping that there aren’t any patients to treat. It is high time that the State government bans chewing tobacco,” he said.