Smoking is bad for health. And if all those advertisements, your parents, your wife and John Abraham have not been able to dissuade you so far, here?s still some hope, for you and for your child. Soon, that portly, elderly, loving lady that passes off for his principal could turn into a stick-wielding avatar of the mean policeman on the street, with powers to issue challans. Of course, for smoking on the campus!
To discourage smoking in public, the health ministry is considering giving school principals the right to issue challans to violators. According to the proposal, challans by the school principals would have the same validity as the one for a traffic violation. He can issue the paper to anybody found smoking in his school premises.
It is felt that the measure would help check people from smoking in prohibited areas as well as prevent development of smoking habits among teenagers. This will also get over the ticklish issue of not using corporal punishment and yet provide an effective deterrent. ?Allowing headmasters to penalise smokers would help prevent smoking within the school both by students and others. Authorising more hands to issue challan is likely to discourage people who are not yet habitual and do it just for fun,? a health ministry official told FE.
To make it effective, the ministry would also like to increase the quantum of fine, currently at Rs 200, to up to Rs 10,000. However, other stakeholders ? NGOs, tobacco companies and other government departments and ministries are opposed to it. Over 250 million people in the country use tobacco products.
The ministry intends to take the help of various non-government organisations and social help groups to ensure that more and more violators are penalised. The government is also planning a policy to make working places, barring restaurants and airports, free from smoking.