Gutka not only a poor man’s habit

Gutka is generally seen to be a lower-middle class or poor person’s habit.
Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi says that the perception isn’t true. At least not anymore.

“The gutka industry over the last 15 years has gone from non-existent to having bottom lines in the hundreds of crores. They’ve done this by capturing the middle and upper-middle class through advertisements and celebrity endorsements. Today, gutka is a symbol of status,” says Dr Chaturvedi.

Smita Pednekar, 56, agrees with Dr Chaturvedi. “That gutka is only consumed by the poorer classes, is a complete myth,” she says.

Smita speaks from personal experience. Before 2007, she had a good life. She had her own practice as a health care consultant and her husband had his construction business. Together they were making enough money to give their two daughters the best.

But then, her husband Satish suffered a series of health setbacks. In 2007, he was diagnosed with TB and soon after he found that he also had diabetes. Satish managed to recover. In 2010, Satish came back from Delhi, complaining of a throat ache that left him unable to swallow food.

Initially, he dismissed it as a normal throat infection until Smita forced him to go to a doctor. “It was difficult to convince him but on his birthday he agreed. We went to Hinduja Hospital where the doctors found that it was cancer. My husband wanted a second opinion, so we went to Tata Memorial Centre. They did a biopsy and informed us that he had throat cancer and it was at an advanced stage,” says Smita.

Satish had been chewing gutka for about 30 years. Ten months after the diagnosis, Satish died of throat cancer.

Dr Chaturvedi says that about 40% of the patients that he gets are from the upper-middle and middle class.

“Earlier, only 10% of the patients who would develop cancer due to their gutka habit belonged to the financially well-off classes. That ratio has changed drastically,” says Dr Chaturvedi.

“The gutka industry has made gutka more palatable with expensive spices. It’s given the product taste and glamour. But it remains just as harmful,” he adds.

The Pednekars know how harmful the gutka habit can be. Satish’s death left them devastated, emotionally as well as financially.

Their daughters who were studying abroad had to leave midway, return to the country and get jobs to help out their mother. Smita’s practice had wrapped up as her husband’s illness had taken so much of her time. She’s still trying to pay off debts.

Has life regained a certain amount of normalcy? Yes she says, but her life has also been changed irrevocably.

“Things have gotten better, but it’ll never be the same. We’ll never find the same happiness,” Smita adds.