Signature campaign to oppose the ‘Global Tobacco Trade Event, 2010’

Anti-Tobacco groups involve the masses to fight against the Indian Government’s involvement in the event.

Healis - Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health participated in a signature campaign organized by the Institute of Public Health (IPH) along with various other like-minded organizations across the nation, to oppose the third Global Tobacco Networking Forum (GTNF) which is to be held in Bangalore between the 4th and 8th of October. The campaign aims at collecting 1 lakh signature as a means to protest against the Government’s involvement as a sponsor to the event.
GTNF is a four-day industrial event which will focus on discussing and subsequently enhancing the reach and scope of the tobacco industry in India. The event is sponsored by 24 of the leading tobacco manufacturing and packaging brands in the world and the count is expected to go up. While it isn’t surprising to see these names, it is shocking to see that the Tobacco Board of India – a Government entity too is a part of the list of sponsors.
India is one of the 168 countries that are signatories to the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC). However, by sponsoring the GTNF, the Government of India seems to have violated the obligations of the FCTC – which became legally binding following India’s signature and acceptance in 2004. At the recently conducted Advocacy Forum for Tobacco Control (AFTC) meet in Mumbai, 52 participating members expressed their displeasure and support through signatures to protest against the Government’s involvement as a sponsor to the event. This apart, a number of groups have come together to form a small consortium to tackle the issue together.
Shobha John, Program Director of HealthBridge (formerly PATH Canada)said, “According to the treaty, the Government cannot partner with the tobacco industry because of a fundamental conflict of interest between the tobacco industry and public health/policy programs.” But the Tobacco Board of India’s name and logo amongst leading tobacco brands seems to suggest otherwise.
She added, “This unholy nexus lends legitimacy to the working of the tobacco companies and promotes tobacco use.”
Dr. P. C. Gupta, Director, Healis – Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health said, “It is amazing that an industry whose products kills its consumers when used exactly as intended is meeting to discuss further advancement of its activities and a body of the Government of India is sponsoring its meet against international legal commitments.”
For Pasumai Thaayagam, a Chennai based organization and signatory to this campaign, it is déjà vu. In 2008, the organization collected signatures to counter a similar tobacco event that took place in Malaysia. Hoping for similar results, Mr. R. Arul, secretary of Paasumai Thaayagam said, “It is therefore, not impossible to counter such an event. With awareness, support and co-operation, it happened the last time and it sure can happen again.” He added that the then health minister had written to his Malaysian counterpart advising him not to support such events. “Then why is our government now supporting such event in our own country.”
There is a very high prevalence of tobacco usage in the country. According to the National Family Health Survey (NFHS – 3), 57.6% of men and 10.9% of women in the country use tobacco. While over nine lakh people die of tobacco related illnesses every year (according to the Government’s estimates in 2004), the number of deaths in 2010 is expected to be 1 million.