The Indian government’s ban on smoking in public places has received mixed reviews from various sets of people. For instance, office executives who usually catch up over a cigarette or use smoke as a way of releasing stress, raised eyebrows over the decision.

Though, some offices are rather strict, some find their way out. However, for college and school students the written ban really means nothing but a piece of paper. In fact, smoking amongst college students has not been affected by the ban.

Most students either have turned a deaf ear towards the ban, or pretend that they have never heard of it. Thus, the bottom line is that students continue to smoke blatantly. Though, educational institutions have been strict with their on-campus smoking rules, there is nothing stopping the students.

Says Professor Vandana Joshi from a reputed Mumbai College, "We can stop them from smoking on campus, but we really can’t follow them everywhere. What we really need is a sound guidance cell that helps students stop this habit on their will, rather than being forced to give up." She adds, "The more students are pressurised against smoking, the more they will continue smoking. Thus, as teachers we must in our own way guide and counsel them against smoking."

It’s not just colleges, smoking is equally rampant amongst school students. Anbumani Ramadoss, the Union minister for health and family welfare, pointed out in one of his speeches that 13 per cent of children in the age group of 13-16 years consume tobacco.

And, to address this concern, the health ministry has allocated Rs 22 lakhs for each district to create awareness about the adverse effects of tobacco in the country, targeting educational institutions. But, is this enough? Or do we need to take more drastic steps against the killer habit?

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Medics are as likely to be smokers as other students

Each day 55,000 children in India start using tobacco, Gutkha the chewable tobacco is aimed at the younger generation of the country. But you may wonder how do these companies manage to reach the minds of this children when they are not allowed to advertise these products.

After the ban the companies opened their doors to surrogate advertisement, an advertisement has the logo or brand of another company advertised within it. Lets take a look at this report done by a french channel on surrogate advertisements done in India.



One of the biggest surrogate advertisement market is the film Industry Bollywood, in 2004 and 2005, 89% of all the released movies had smoking scenes in them. Below is a small documentary on smoking in movies, with interesting statistics on the current scenario in India with regards to smoking.



According to research done by the Salaam Bombay Foundation, 3260 children between the age of 12 to 17 years fro municipal and private schools were asked to fill out a self-administered questionnaire.

When asked to recall slogans of any tobacco company or brand…

• 71% recalled Manikchand – Oonche log, oonchi pasand


• 12% recalled Goa – Yahan bhi Khilate hain, whan bhi, Goa No 1


• 2% recalled Sanket


• 0.4% recalled Shimla


• 15% recalled other brands

When asked to associate slogans with brands 63% could associate the slogan while 37% could not. What kind of a message will a child get from, Oonche log, oonchi pasand

Some of the observations learnt through this research is that, Gutkha advertising has had a deep impact on the minds of children although it has been banned since August 2002.

As children cannot easily disassociate Manikchand Water from Manikchand Gutkha, tobacco manufacturing companies should not be allowed to use surrogate advertisements. TV and radio are the hotspots as to where these messages are broadcasted to the children, the future of our country!

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Cartoon by Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi