Guwahati, June 20: The Assam Government has started an
SMS campaign to ensure all Educational Institutions are tobacco Free in
Assam. Healis - Sekhsaria Institute for
Public Health & Tata Trusts in association with the Assam Education
department and Dr. B. Barooah Cancer Institute in Guwahati had launched the Tobacco
Free Educational Institutions (TFEI) campaign in Assam on the World Environment
Day, June 5, 2016.
Following the launch, the Commissioner Secretary of the
Assam Education department had instructed the Principal/Heads of Education Institutions
and the District Education Officers to implement the TFEI campaign across the
state.
As a follow up, the Rashtriya Madhamik Siksha Abhiyan
(RMSA) and Sarba Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) has now started sending SMSs to the Principals
and Heads of the Government educational institutions across the state reminding
them to implement the orders and declare their institutions as tobacco Free.
Secretary of Secondary Education Department of Assam, Sri
Ramesh Chandra Jain said that they have started sending SMSs to the Principal
and Heads of the institutions through the centralized system of RMSA. This Saturday,
the RMSA had sent 4,000 such SMSs to the Principals/Heads of government
educations institutions. “Our efforts will ensure that the Principals and Heads
of educational institutions ensure implementation at the earliest. We shall
continue to send the SMS until implementation is completed in all the Government
educational institutions,” Jain said adding that this process of sending the
SMS will expedite the process of implementation of TFEI.
In order to declare
the educational institutions tobacco Free, the Heads/Principals of the
Educational institution need to do the following:
a)
All signages inside and outside the educational
institutions should be put up as per the law
b)
There must not be any usage of tobacco products inside
the premises.
c)
A self declaration along with photograph of the
institution in the format sent along with the order needs to be sent to the
DEO.
This is as per the tobacco control law : The Cigarettes
& Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA 2003):
It may be
mentioned here that Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has plans to build
a tobacco free Assam. The Chief Minister had recently instructed to make the
under construction Assam House in New Delhi a tobacco free building.
State Health and Education Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma, who has also
taken keen interest on the subject, had also appealed to everyone to work in
close coordination to make the society tobacco free while speaking at a recent
function organized to observe the World Anti-Tobacco Day.
Director of Dr. B. Barooah Cancer Institute, Dr. Amal C Kataki expressing concern over the use of tobacco
said that a lot of new cases of cancer are being diagnosed in the Northeastern
states, particularly from Assam, and most of these cases of cancer are due to
use of tobacco. “It will be great if we can keep our school children away from
tobacco addiction and we all must come forward to take this Mission forward,”
he said while appreciating the positive steps taken by the state government in
this regard.
In Assam, 140 children initiate to use tobacco everyday. Over 85 lakh
adults are consuming tobacco in some or the other form in Assam as per the
Global Adult Tobacco Survey 2010. One-third of these would die an untimely
death due to tobacco related diseases. Every year Assam witnesses 29,600 deaths
due to tobacco consumption.
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