“What’s all went into achieving the first Smoke-Free city of India and what were the strategy applied to achieve smoke-free Chandigarh?” This is the question which many people from across the world have been asking. To lay bare the process of smoke-free Chandigarh, the first smoke-free city anywhere in the developing world, Dr. Gaurav Chabbra and Humlog released a documentary titled “The Change Catalyst,” here today.“Change Catalyst is a short 23 minutes documentary which has been built around impromptu conversation with Hemant Goswami, the man behind Smoke-Free Chandigarh and his struggle to push for smoke-free laws inspite of a non-responsive government and the intense opposition by the tobacco industry lobby.” Mentions Gaurav Chabbra.
Dr. Gaurav had documented many actual shots from the first day of the initiative and the viewers can now actually see things in action and operation as they started between 2005 to 2007. “When Hemant started the initiative and went for first joint meeting with the Chandigarh Administration, I knew history was being created. I took my video camera along and shot the event.” Gaurav recalls.
In a country where routine laws are also not been followed, implementation and enforcement of a social law like tobacco control act had attracted the attention of the world. Two international studies, one by International Union Against Lung Disease and another by World Health Organisation have already been published on Smoke-Free initiative.
“I am happy that Gaurav has done the important task of making an audio-visual documentation of the smoke-free Chandigarh process. The strategy we used here has already made an impact globally. The Union government enacted the October 2, 2008 rules motivated by Chandigarh. Besides, many cities have borrowed the Chandigarh learning. If others use this work and get motivated by it, my job is done.” Hemant Goswami said.
Independent indicators by WHO and CDC released in 2010 Global Adult Tobacco Survey reinforces the success level of smoke-free Chandigarh initiative. The indicator for Chandigarh show that the number of youth initiating consumption has declined significantly. This has come from the awareness about the smoke-free laws and high level of sensitivity about the disease and death caused by tobacco use. The youngsters no more think that smoking or tobacco use is cool. They associate it now with death and disease. The percent of people exposed to second hand smoke in Chandigarh is also the lowest in India at 11 percent compared to 54 percent people in Meghalaya who have to inhale other people’s cancer causing smoke.
According to the WHO survey, the figures of tobacco users in Chandigarh has come down to a low of 14 percent compared to the national average of 35 percent. Number of females consuming any form of tobacco is also one of the lowest in India with less than 1.7 percent females consuming any form of tobacco product compared to 20.3 across the country. Similarly figures of number of people consuming chewing tobacco in Chandigarh is 3.3 percent which is less than 4.8 percent of Punjab and way below the national average of 20.6 percent. This is remarkable if it be considered that Punjab has over 56 percent sikh population compared to just 19 percent in Chandigarh; indicating that sikh religion is not a factor in this fall in consumption of tobacco use in Chandigarh where nearly 80 percent people are non-sikh and are mostly migrant from high tobacco consumption areas.
Hemant explained that enforcement of laws is one of the best awareness mechanisms and tool. “Chandigarh has been able to consistently enforce the smoke-free laws which resulted in greater confidence among people that they too can stand-up and protest if someone smokes in a public area. This brought in ownership among the general public and as a result we are now the best in the country.”
No doubt that over 75 percent people in Chandigarh are clearly aware about the designated non-smoking areas in public places and the survey showed that Chandigarh has the highest compliance rates with only 3 percent people stating that they have seen someone smoking in a non-smoking public place. Over 90 percent citizens have seen some form of anti-tobacco message against smoked and smokeless tobacco across the city. This is the highest in the country.
The awareness among youth about tobacco harm is also the highest in the country with 97 percent of city resident aware about harms of smoked tobacco and clearly associating tobacco consumption with cancer and heart attacks.