Bangalore: Gutkha, a common tobacco-based chewable addictive substance has been widely held to be a cause of oral cancer. A concerned government had put up messages through various means of communication to sensitise people about the ill-effects of gutkha and other such products that contain, tobacco and nicotine. However when it was found difficult to dissuade people from the habit the government took a pro-active decision to ban the substance.
According to a report in the 'Bangalore Mirror' gutkha sellers in the city have found ingenious ways to skirt around the ban and as things stand now, the substance continues to be sold in the city with impunity, albeit in a new avatar.
Thus gutkha brands have re-emerged as a combination of paan masala, and chewable tobacco. Now this move has been convenient for sellers to carry on with their gutkha business. This is because there is no ban at present on either paan masala or tobacco and hence all the gutkha sellers have to do is to buy tobacco and paan masala separately and mix them and sell their product as 'paan masala'.
The mixture that is created becomes then, an all-new addictive substance which can 'thrive' without any govrnment ban. Such 'mixing' happens with complete impunity right in front of the shops selling gutkha across Bangalore.
A number of state governments--24 to be precise--had come up with bans on products containing tobacco and nicotine in the last 2 years, being armed with the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act (FSS), 2006. Karnataka has become the most recent state in the country to impose a similar ban. Notably, the southern states Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and now Karnataka have imposed the ban on products containing tobacco and nicotine this year.
The order of the Karnataka government had been challenged by gutkha manufacturers of the state who had approached the Karnataka High Court against the decision. The High Court Bench under Justice BS Patil however upheld the government's decision, terming it as being 'wise'.
However in an effort to save their businesses, gutkha manufacturers have been advertising themselves as paan masala under the tagline '0% Tobacco 0% Nicotine'. These tactics by the gutkha makers and vendors is however not specific to Karnataka, but have been tried in the othere states where the ban has been imposed as well.
Over a dozen gutkha brands were sold in the state and most of them are now available as paan masala and tobacco in separate packets. The tobacco component costs only Rs. 1 across the board, while the cost of paan masala differs according to the brand.
Indeed efforts to ban gutkha have been over-a-decade-long, buit nothing has come out of it. Earlier attempts by some state governments to ban it under the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act had fallen foul of the law as courts held that only the Central Government could impose a ban under the Act.
However with the clandestine gutkha mkers ans sellers, one wonders if the ban will be at all effective, as people continue to 'dig their own graves' by consuming gutkha and other nicotine-laden products that have been proved to be cancer-causing.
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