[Pophealth] request for posting.

Wed May 31 17:44:43 PDT 2006

Dear Forum,

Interesting article on how we develop different perspectives even though we
know what we are talking about.

Thanks.

Rakesh Kumar, 

Packard-Gates Fellow 2003-04(UW, USA), 

MSW (TISS,India ), 

MPH Candidate 2005-06( (UW,USA),

School of Public Health and Community Medicine,

University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98105.

Tel. # 206-632-1260(H); Email:  <mailto:rakesh at arogyam.org>
rakesh at arogyam.org 

  _____  

Published on June 01 2006, Page 10 

  _____  

PLATFORM - The smoke alarm's jammed

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E VERY YEAR, the WHO leads the world on the occasion of the Anti-Tobacco Day
on May 31. It has become a kind of a ritual. But more importantly, the
campaign against tobacco not only exposes the health risks, but even more
seriously, compromises the very essence of polit- ical and economic freedom.
There is little study of the factors which influence the choice of mil-
lions of people to reject the appeal of tobacco. Instead, the philosophy of
the anti-tobacco cam- paign is to stress that people cannot be trusted to
make their own decision, so they must either be penalised through taxes, or
otherwise restrained from accessing tobacco products. A corollary of this
misguided approach is to assault the big tobacco companies, capitalising on
the political- ly correct sentiments of our time, rather than recognising
the impact of the range of tobacco products pro- duced by cottage industries
across India. Tobacco is an important eco- nomic crop in India, which is the
third largest producer of tobacco in the world. Around five lakh farmers,
grow tobacco in about 0.24 per cent of total agricultural land in the coun-
try. In parts of Karnataka, 75 per cent of tobacco grown is exported for the
manufacture of filter cigarettes of international brands. Last year, India
exported 166,000 tons of tobacco worth Rs 1,400 crore. India is among the
top ten exporters in the world. The total size of the tobacco economy in
India has been estimated at around $ 3.3 billion in 2005. Compare this with
the cosmetic and toi- letries sector at $ 3.4 billion, and tourism receipts
of $ 4.1 billion. For households that con- sume tobacco, less than 3 per
cent of family income is spent on tobacco. India has one of the lowest per
capita con- sumption of cigarettes in the world. The indige- nous bidi and
other forms of chewing tobacco constitute 85 per cent of the tobacco market
here. But it is most attractive to launch a war on the multinational private
companies that are presumed to be guilty. The priority is to ban the
advertisement of tobacco, or wipe out traces of cigarettes from films shown
on TV. It is the ciga- rettes companies that pay 85 per cent of the total
taxes on tobacco. They are among the biggest contributors to the public
exchequer, second only to the petroleum sector. After collecting 50 per cent
in various forms of taxes out of the total tobacco-related income of the big
cigarette companies, the government becomes the bigger profiteer. The
attempt to price cigarettes out of the market has meant that the population
that is inclined has to adopt more hazardous forms of tobacco. And then end
up paying more from their pocket on healthcare. A true double whammy for the
peo- ple from their own government. The most serious casualties of this war
on cig- arettes are individual freedom and responsibili- ty. Increasing use
of law to prohibit smoking in public places, and restrictions of
advertisements are much more injurious to the health of free societies, than
tobacco itself. Take the case of increasing scope of public places where
smoking is being prohibited. Of course, no non-smoker should be exposed to
sec- ond-hand smoke without consent. But one way to do this would be to
increas- ingly privatise the public spaces, rather than attempt to bring
even more private prop- erty within the public domain. Just as private
service providers find various ways to meet the demands of vegetari- an and
non-vegetarian cus- tomers, they would as easily find the right balance of
smok- ers and non-smokers in their own private environment, be it a
transport, a theatre or an air- line. As if this assault on private property
was not serious enough, the next assault was to move from restricting
tobacco advertisement to pro- hibiting them altogether. The first led to
surro- gate advertising, the second leads to denial of freedom and
responsibility. Advertisements are the most visible symbol of freedom of
expres- sion. Rather than relying on the coercive power of the government,
advertisements seek to per- suade potential customers. Because of the volun-
tary nature of advertisements, it recognises the freedom of population to
reject the product. Typically, two-thirds to three-fourths of the pop-
ulation refuse to fall for the lure of tobacco. And it is this freedom to
reject that empowers the citi- zenry and secures freedom in a society. How
fragile would be our democracy, if people as sovereigns enjoy the right to
vote, and freely elect a prime minister or reject a political party, but the
same people are not considered responsi- ble enough to decide whether to
consume tobac- co or not. Should we really barter away our free- dom for the
sake of the war on tobacco? The writer is the director of Liberty Institute,
New Delhi 

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