'Lack of political will to implement tobacco control laws, poor response from churches and government school still a challenge for Nagaland'
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A man enjoys a 'bidi,' which is a roll of unprocessed tobacco wrapped in leaves, in Dimapur.[/caption]
Henlly Phom
Dimapur, May 30 (EMN): The alarming trend of tobacco use and abuse in Nagaland is manifold: children using tobacco at an early age, high use of 'pan masala' (spiced tobacco products), and a high ranking at average monthly expenditure on cigarettes. Education seem to have no bearing on tobacco users either. These were some of the concerns expressed to Eastern Mirror by Dr. C Tetseo, Dimapur district's nodal officer at the National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP).
As the world observes World No Tobacco Day 2018 on May 31 with the theme "Tobacco and heart disease" by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and its partners, Nagaland joins too in combating substance abuse. The message of the campaign is "make everyday World No Tobacco Day."
According to Dr. Tetseo, the NTCP's work has seen some achievements: 107 schools have declared themselves tobacco-free. Likewise, more than 100 awareness programs were conducted during the past one year. Further, institutions are integrating tobacco-control measures in their systems. Some have even included it as research work and practical assignment. Private schools also have responded very well to the initiative, it was informed.
According to figures made available to Eastern Mirror by Dr. Tetseo, the Global Audit Tobacco Survey (GATS) northeast India 2009-10 and 2016-17 for Nagaland showed a decrease from 56.8% to 43.3%. In the prevalence of current smoking and change in the GATS northeast India 2019-10 and 2016-17, Nagaland showed a significant decline from 31.5 to 13.2.
However there is still a lot of challenges to be met. For instance, the high social acceptance of tobacco habits, lack of political will in implementing tobacco-control laws, and poor response from churches and government schools are some of the challenges, Dr. Tetseo remarked.
Another medical practitioner, Dr. Temjennungsang Longchari of Dental Touch & Facial Aesthetics at Dimapur, was contented as he spoke to Eastern Mirror. The state’s tobacco-use prevalence has been significantly reduced from 57% to 43% according to the latest GATS-2 for 2016-17 within a period of five years.
'This is a big success achieved through the sincere and hard work of multi-sector, both government and private,' he remarked.
"On May 26, I volunteered for the Himalayan Clean Up solidarity against waste at the Railway station in Dimapur. Of all the waste collected, I could see the maximum waste to be of Gutkha and Pan Masala sachets. After all this again, I became more determined to work more among our people in creating awareness on tobacco and its ill-effect on health and of course the environment it litters," he said.
Dr. Longchari was optimistic that more can be achieved in the future if the communities, nongovernmental organisations and the churches would also play proactive roles. But he wants to let everyone know that tobacco is a social issue. Everyone has a big role to play to make Nagaland tobacco-free and to develop it into a healthy and developed state.
According to the WHO, the focus of World No Tobacco Day 2018 is 'tobacco and heart disease,' to highlight the link between tobacco and the heart and other cardiovascular diseases. It aims to increase awareness among the public about the impact of tobacco use and exposure to second-hand smoke, and its impact on cardiovascular health.
Other goals include providing opportunities for the public and governments to make commitments to promote heart health by protecting people from the use of tobacco and to encourage countries to strengthen implementation of the proven MPOWER tobacco control measures that are contained in the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
