Is the ban on smoking working? Yes, No, Maybe

A month after the curb came in force, DNA surveys its effect

A month after the ban on smoking came in force, nobody, least the officials responsible for enforcing it, is ready to say whether it’s worked or not.

Smokers, non-smokers or the busybodies of the anti-smoking lobby, there is only one thing they agree on: it’s a move in the right direction that is bound to yield a positive result over time. 

In Mumbai, the hype over the ban has surely helped create awareness on the ill-effects of smoking. Anti-tobacco activists claim more and more young people are kicking the habit. “Like the government, I gave myself the deadline of October 2 to quit smoking,” 25-year-old IT professional Sameer Shetty says.

Narendra Kumar, 40, a chain-smoking software professional in Lucknow, agrees. “The ban has not stopped me from smoking. But at least I am learning to live without it for long periods,” he says.

Adds Arunava Ghosh, a Kolkata businessman, “Surely, the ban has impacted my attitude towards smoking in public places.”

Pubs, restaurants and even five-star hotels in Mumbai have prohibited smoking. In
Kolkata, which has always boasted of the largest number of smokers among India’s big cities, the ban appears to be complete in watering holes and eateries due to “cooperation” from people.

P D’Mello, the manager of Olympia, central Kolkata’s oldest bar, says, “Not a single customer protested the ban in the last one month. When smokers want to smoke, they go out.”

But this cooperation is in short supply in the national capital where owners of pubs, bars, cafes and restaurants are throwing up hands in utter helplessness. “We had put up boards asking customers to refrain from smoking but most are not willing to cooperate,” the manager of an upmarket Delhi café complains.

“Some threaten to leave and go to another restaurant where they can smoke. So we are compelled not to press.”

Many bars in Bangalore, India’s pub capital, too allow smoking for fear of losing business. Even off-duty policemen smoke in public at tea shops. Private establishments, including IT firms, on the other hand, have implemented the ban with success. “Restaurants and bars are the trouble spots where stricter steps should be taken,” IS Srivastava, director-general (health), Uttar Pradesh, warns.

In Pune, customers enter into heated arguments when told not to light up at restaurants. Rammana Shetty, cashier of Hotel Nataraj, says, “A no-smoking board has been put up in the hotel, but customers often don’t heed it.”

Ever since the ban, Pune’s food and drug administration (FDA) has fined 40 people, collecting Rs8,600. But a candid FDA assistant commissioner SS Kulkarni says it has not been possible to strictly implement the restriction.

In Jaipur, where the ban has been most effective in government offices, seniors take juniors to task if founding smoking. But smokers continue to puff away with impunity at malls and other public places with officials looking the other way.

Nagendra Rathor, a young professional in Ahmedabad who often smokes, says, “In the past one month, I have not seen anything changed in the city. People have been smoking in public places without fear.”

In Chandigarh, the ban was in place even before health minister Ambumani Ramadoss enforced it across India and it has been largely effective. But in Kerala the government is yet to even issue a notification to abide by the central diktat. In fact states such as Rajasthan are waking up only now.

(With inputs from Deepa Suryanarayan in Mumbai, Puneet Nicholas Yadav in Delhi, Shwetha S in Bangalore, Sumanta Ray Chaudhuri in Kolkata, Kuldeep Tiwari in Ahmedabad, Nozia Sayyed in Pune, Rashpal Bhardwaj in Jaipur, Ajay Bharadwaj in Chandigarh and Don Sebastian in Thiruvananthapuram)