The 13th World Conference on Tobacco OR Health

Objective:

India enacted a tobacco control legislation called “Cigarette and other tobacco products Act 2003.” Despite the enactment of the legislations, there are many areas where there is no enforcement. There must be some specific reasons for the same. This study evaluated the reasons for the successes and failures in the enforcement of the tobacco control legislations. After evaluation of the same and ground level interaction, proposal and recommendations to make control more effective are devised.

Methods:

A ground level assessment study was done. The city of Chandigarh, having a population of one million was surveyed for enforcement and violations with regard to the tobacco control legislation. Qualitative open ended interviews with tobacco vendors and the general public, especially youngsters were conducted by trained professionals. This was supported by a questionnaire study of over 1000 people to ascertain their level of awareness about the tobacco control legislation.

Results:

It was found that the tobacco control legislation was not enforced strictly and the enforcement agencies had serious reservations about the legislation. The awareness level of the enforcement staff and the conviction was also missing among the. Among the public also the awareness level was very low and rated at an average of 2.8 on a scale of 0 to 10. Children are involved in the sale of tobacco and there is no restriction on minors buying tobacco despite it being illegal. The penal provisions were found lacking in sufficient deterrence.