Mumbai hails ban on smoking: Survey

Union health minister Ambumani Ramadoss’ seemingly preposterous drive to make Indian publicplaces smoke-free hasn’t gone up in smoke after all.

If a recent survey is to be believed, Mumbaikars have given the law on the ban on smoking in public places and its implementation a big thumbs up.

The survey, instituted by the Healis Sekhsaria Institute for Public Health and carried out by Synovate’s Global Omnibus, found that 98% of city dwellers rated the implementation of the ban in restaurants and bars as ‘excellent’. Even the remaining 2% Mumbaikars surveyed thought that the implementation of the ban was ‘good’.

Over 1,026 people from four metro cities — Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Delhi — were surveyed. Dr PC Gupta, director of Healis Sekhsaria Institute, said that the respondents were people in the age group of 15-64 years, from the upper-middle-class category.

Among these, 113 (over 11%) were smokers. According to the respondents, the ban has been most effectively implemented in Mumbai, and most shoddily in Kolkata, where over 69% respondents thought the implementation was below average. Chennai and Delhi came second and third respectively.

Three among five people surveyed stated that they have not been witness to smoking inside restaurants and bars after the regulation was enacted on October 2 last year.

While the voices of dissent were quite shrill when the union health ministry enforced the law disallowing smoking in workplaces and public places, the opposition is now dwindling. Over 94% respondents favoured the law, with barely 2% against it.

The survey results were also a shot in the arm for those aspiring to make Mumbai smoke-free. All 300-odd Mumbaikars interviewed expressed support for the ban, the highest in the four cities.

 “A considerable section of the population was also aware of the hazards of passive smoking and felt strongly about their right to enjoy smoke-free air in a public place,” said Dr Surendra Shastri, head, department of oncology, Tata Memorial Hospital, which has joined hands with Healis for the smoke-free campaign.

While 92% recognised the health hazards of being exposed to second-hand smoke, 86% voted in favour of the right of a non-smoker to breathe smoke-free air when in a public place.

On Friday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) became as a partner in the smoke-free campaign. Dr Jairaj Thanekar, executive health officer, BMC, declared that the corporation will be setting up a separate cell, called the smoke-free cell, to implement the regulation more effectively.

Dr Shastri disclosed plans on initiating a toll-free helpline to register passive smokers’ complaints.