Around 250 children from over 350 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) schools have come together to work towards a tobacco-free future as part of Bal Parishad, an annual event organised by NGO Salaam Bombay Foundation recently. This year’s event also added the topic of nutrition to make youngsters aware of healthy eating. February 4 is World Cancer Day.
“These children come from families where many members are frequent tobacco users. Thus, making these children aware of bad effects of tobacco and training them to have a healthy lifestyle can go a long way,” Tshering Bhutia, vice-president, projects (preventive health and research), of the foundation, said.
This was the 13th Bal Parishad which saw children putting forward questions about tobacco, food, and nutrition to officials from the Food and Drug Administration, BMC’s health department, and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India.
One youngster asked about why sophisticated tobacco delivery systems like e-cigarettes are easily available. FDA’s joint commissioner Shailesh Adhav said they are presently focussed on making school premises tobacco free and taking action against the vendor. “We will have to tackle the sophisticated tobacco delivery systems later,” Mr. Adhav said.
A student asked about the availability of junk food to which Mr. Adhav said they cannot ban such food items but consumers should avoid buying them.
This year, the Bal Parishad presented a charter of demands to the State government for a tobacco-free school policy.
After the Bal Parishad in 2018, 11 tobacco-free school criteria were approved by the State’s education department, health department, and the National Tobacco Control Programme, and are being implemented.
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