BHUBANESWAR: With the motto ‘Catch them young’, an ambitious school-based anti-tobacco campaign is underway across 10 districts of the State. The campaign, brainchild of the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and WHO, is being carried out by the Initiative for Development and Empowerment Alternatives (IDEA), New Delhi. It is focusing on sensitising school students on the ill-effects of tobacco use on individual health as well as family and society. Keeping children away from tobacco is the key to fighting the menace that is fast emerging the single-largest cause of preventable deaths in the world. As per WHO estimates, nearly six million lives are claimed by tobacco abuse every year and it is projected to cross eight million by 2030. Deaths would be more in countries like India as more than 80 per cent of tobacco users are in countries having middle and low-income groups. The issue assumes importance as the age of initiation into tobacco is coming down at an alarming rate. Studies have shown that children are taking to tobacco as early as 12 years and their population is rising, IDEA secretary Maheswar Singh said. The campaign is being undertaken in around 100 schools across Balangir, Koraput, Kandhamal, Ganjam, Gajapati, Khurda, Keonjhar, Balasore, Cuttack and Angul districts. More than 10,000 students have been covered along with schoolteachers, management body members and, most importantly, parents and guardians. As many as 200 anti-tobacco volunteers, doctors and social workers are involved in the campaign, Singh said.
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