Lack of awareness hits ‘dry day’ for tobacco

On ‘World No Tobacco Day’ on Thursday, the Delhi government reiterated through advertisements its declaration that the last day of every month would be a ‘dry day’ for tobacco products. But most vendors of tobacco products remained unaware of the initiative that was started years ago.

Unlike a dry day for alcohol, which is enforced with shops shutting and bars not serving liquor, the “dry day for tobacco” is “voluntary” as vendors are requested to close their shops for one day, Delhi government Additional Director (Health) S.K. Arora said.

Starting with a single day-long ‘dry day’ on May 31, 2012, on the occasion of ‘World No Tobacco Day’, the initiative was expanded to include the last day of every month starting in 2013, he said. He added that the State Tobacco Control Cell sends out emails to about 1,000 government offices about a week in advance of the monthly dry day, asking them to prepare awareness activities and outreach programmes for vendors.

“In the past year, we have carried out awareness campaigns for about 9,000 to 10,000 tobacco product vendors,” said Dr. Arora.

‘Will hamper business’

However, most vendors were unaware of the dry day initiative or expressed inability to follow through on it. Rakesh Jain, who owns a paan shop near ITO metro station, said, “I am well aware of the dry day, but it will hamper my business. My income for one day will get affected and I can’t let that happen.”

Another vendor near ITO, Manoj Kumar Tiwari said he had never heard of the initiative.

“If they want to implement dry days, then they should tell distributors. Why should the vendors be asked to close for a day, when the distributors are selling,” he asked. The owner of a paan shop, Suprakash Misra added that even if he shut shop for a day, customers would find other shops to buy their products from.