Introduction:
India is the Second Largest tobacco consuming country in the world after China. According to Global Adults Tobacco Survey, in India 28.6 percent of all adults are currently indulging in smoking or are consuming other kind of Tobacco products. Further, according to the World Health Organisation, tobacco kills more than 1 million people each year in India in the Year 2017. Since, then the number of people who are dying because of consuming tobacco has only increased, this is because, in a country specially like India, the pollution levels in the cities are alarming and when the pollution is combined with tobacco, its effect on the body increases vastly.
The main problem with consumption of tobacco is that it not only effects the person who is consuming it but it also effects anyone around the person consuming it. Specially, items like cigarettes and beedis which produces smoke effect the people around as they passively inhale the smoke that has been produced by the person who is smoking. Therefore, it is more challenging as the product is not just effecting the one who is consuming it but also the ones who are passively inhaling it.
Keeping in mind the widespread and increasing use of tobacco in the country as well as observing the effects these products have on the people who are not consuming it, the government of India in the year 2003, drafter and implemented the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act.
As the name suggests this act was firstly implemented with an intent to stop the advertisement of these products in any possible way. This was simply done to stop these cigarettes and tobacco company from advertising and increasing the people who are consuming these products in day-to-day life. Further, this product is a harmful product for everyone therefore such product shall not be promoted in the country. Secondly, this act was implemented in order to regulate the whole Cigarette and Tobacco Industry in India. this was done so that the Centre could control the trade of trade, production, supply and distribution of cigarettes and other tobacco products.
Section 2 of this act declares that the Union Government is taking over the control of the tobacco industry in Public Intrest. This is done because cigarettes and other tobacco products are harmful for health. There are so many different illnesses that a person can suffer just because of consumption of tobacco. Therefore, it is important that such substance should be kept under check and the regulation of these substances to the population shall also be kept under check.
Prohibition and Regulation under the Act:
Further, Section 4 to Section 6 of the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Product Act, discusses about all the prohibitions that have been imposed under this act regarding cigarettes and other tobacco products. These are really important sections as these are made keeping in mind the intrest of the Public as well as reducing the impact of such products on a larger population.
Firstly, talking about Section 4 of the act, it states that no person shall be allowed to smoke in a Public Place. According to this act if a person wants to indulge in Smoking, he shall not be allowed to do so in a Public Place. Smoking in Public Place have been prohibited for the reason that in a public place there are a lot of people. When someone smokes in a public place, the smoke from the cigarettes is also inhaled by the other people around. These people will also be effected in the same way as the person who is indulging in this activity even though, these people might be non-smoking adults, people who have respiratory problems and small children. Therefore, to prevent the chances of getting more people ill because of smoking this Section was drafted.
Secondly, Section 5 of this act, states that there shall be no advertisement of cigarettes and any other tobacco products. This section prohibits the manufacturers and the sellers from any kind of advertisement of cigarettes or any other tobacco product. Further, this section broadens the scope as it not only prohibit the manufacturers or sellers from advertising these products but also any one else who is for pecuniary benefit advertises these products even though they are not directly related to the industry. This Section is drafted with intent to prohibit any promotion for use or consumption of such products. If these products are advertised the number of people consuming these products can significantly increase.
Thirdly, Section 6 of this act can be regarded as one of the most important section of this act. Section 6 of this act states that no person shall sell or permit sale of cigarettes or Tobacco to any person who is under the age of eighteen years and in any area within a radius of one hundred yards of any educational institution. This particular section focuses on restricting the people who can consume these products. As there products are harmful for health it can really effect the growth of a child and cause some serious illness. Therefore, the act prohibits sale of such products to Children, and it tries to keep such products away from educational institutions where these children visit in there everyday life.
After imposing these restrictions, the act talks about how cigarettes and other tobacco products shall be regulated in India. This is an important section as it is really important to regulate the sale of such substances which are harmful for everyone. Section 7 of this act talks about Regulation of Such products. According to Section 7, it is firstly stated that in order to sell this product there needs to be a warning label on the box with any picture or photo as prescribed by the government. This is important as these products are harmful therefore it should be made clear that the contents that are there in the box are dangerous and it could cause cancer and many other terminal illness which are usually advertised via the picture on the box.
Secondly, it states that no person shall import these cigarettes and other tobacco products from a country outside and sell it in India, if the box of these products do not come labelled with a specified warning of this product. It is important to do so because, people do not want to look at the warning sign or a picture of mouth cancer or lung cancer every time they want to smoke or consume tobacco and many people tend to stop using these products because of this. If such warnings are removed from the boxes people will be more encouraged to smoke.
Thirdly, this section further states that the size of such warning and pictures should be large enough. The signs and the picture should be of considerable size. This is also done with the simple intention that people shall notice that these products are harmful and that they shall not indulge in these substances. Therefore, if the size of the warning is really small, it will get unnoticed. Therefore, in order to discourage people from consuming these products, it is important that the size of these warnings are big enough for everyone to notice.
Lastly, this section states that in order for cigarettes and other tobacco products to be sold the box or the packets that contain such substances shall have all the information about the tar and nicotine content that is there is these products. It is also, important for the consumers to know how much and in what amount are they consuming substances like Nicotine and Tar which are harmful for health.
Advantages of the Act:
- Smoking tobacco or consuming it can cause cancer, strokes and heart diseases. As we have discussed above smoking does not only effect the people who are smoking it but also the people around who inhale this smoke. Therefore, it causes harm to more than one person at the same time. therefore, it was important that there should be prohibition from smoking cigarettes or consuming any other tobacco product in Public Places.
- Prohibiting such activities from public places helps not only in protecting more people to suffer harm but also it discourages the habit of smoking and people tend to smoke less. As, people in public places will not allow such acts, the will no longer be regarded as a social activity and less and less people will be inclined towards it.
- This act helps in regulation of a product that is harmful. It was really important to regulate such a product otherwise more and more people will indulge in such acts. specially, the children who are entering their teenage and there curiosity would increases do try new things. Putting an age restriction on sale of such products is an important step that has been taken by the government. This was only possible because this acts gives the union government the power to regulate cigarettes and other tobacco products.
The Act though has been effective to an extent since it has been implemented but the act is not able to achieve the objective that it was drafted and implemented for. The main motive of that act that is wanted to achieve by banning the advertisement of such products and regulating this industry was to discourage the people from indulging in the habit of smoking or consuming any such products that contains tobacco as it is harmful for everyone consuming it and it is like a slow poison that will kill the person consuming it regularly.
This act made laws to prohibit many different activities that are related to smoking, and it tries to limit this activity. But the prohibitions or restrictions that has been imposed by this act has failed miserably. Firstly, the act prohibits smoking in public places. This particular law has been implemented in the country and yes, the implementation of this particular law can be said to be somewhat effective. But still there are many public places where people still indulge in smoking, chewing tobacco and other stuff. This law might be effective when it comes to restaurants and bars. But this law has failed in places like open markets, public parks, parking’s and many other places.
Secondly, the act prohibits the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to a person younger than the age of 18. This law has failed miserably in the country. According to Global Youth Tobacco Survey conducted in 2006 39.6% of Children in India initiated smoking before the legal age. The condition has only worsened in the recent times. Children are easily able to buy these products from small roadside sellers to big retail sellers easily. There is no proper check on the selling of these products and that is why the sellers are easily able to sell these products to children who are below the age of 18. This makes the children specially teenagers between 15 to 17 more likely to indulge in this habit. Rather than discouraging this habit, the failure in implementation of these laws indirectly encourages these habits.
Proposed Amendment Bill :
As it is becoming evident that Act is not able to achieve its objective completely. Certain amendments have been proposed in the new Amendment Bill. The first thing that this amendment will do is that it will fix liability even on the people who are participating in tobacco advertisement and are therefore, encouraging it. The next thing that this amendment proposes is that Smoking in Public Places should be banned completely. As even after designating areas there are instances of Passive smoking by the non-smoking crowd in that place. the amendment also proposes to increase the ambit of section 4 and include all the other products containing tobacco from being used in public places, which will prevent infectious disease which can be caused by spitting of such tobacco. Further, this act most importantly in section 5 inserts an clause to ban CSR activities by the Tobacco industry which shall prevent them from influencing the policies that are made regarding tobacco products. These are certain important changes that has been introduced in the amendment bill and if this bill is passed the implementation of this act will be more effective than it is at the moment.
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