Delhi to pressure stars as it aims to enforce public smoking ban
India is set to enforce a new law banning smoking in public places, including bars and restaurants, from Oct 2, as part of efforts to cut a habit that is fast spreading to women and the young.
One of the federal Health Ministry's first targets is Bollywood's reigning star Shah Rukh Khan. It plans to bombard the actor with literature detailing the harm caused by cigarettes.
The government is also targeting other actors whom it feels are influencing youngsters to pick up the habit.
Khan, a chain-smoker who has already been taken to court by a non-government organisation for breaking a law that prohibits smoking in public places, was reportedly spotted lighting up during the shooting of a film at a college in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in Punjab.
The Punjab health authorities have decided to send a notice to the actor for violating the ban, state officials said.
Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, who has taken up the anti-smoking campaign as a mission, had earlier appealed to Khan and other leading actors to stop smoking in movies, saying that millions of youngsters who emulate them would pick up the bad habit.
'The movies are most responsible,' he said in a television interview, quoting statistics showing that 52 per cent of children smoked their first cigarette because of movie celebrities.
Khan, however, rejected the appeal. 'I think there is a huge amount of creative freedom and, in the field of art and cinema, we should be allowed that,' he said. 'One should not go around picking on little things - because that's just cinema, it's make-believe and we should not have huge censorship on that.
'I wish Mr Ramadoss prays that I stop smoking in real life because that's worse. In movies, we just do it for make-believe.
'I do not endorse smoking and I do not like anyone telling me personally what to do and what not to do.'
A study published in January showed that there are 120 million smokers in India. In the next decade, one million of them will die each year because of smoking-related diseases.
According to the latest National Family Health Survey, more women are lighting up. Over 31 per cent of women in urban India from 15 to 49 years old now use tobacco in some form, a steep hike from 10 per cent in 1995 to 1996. One third of men in the same age group smoke.
To check this alarming trend, the Health Ministry has decided to step up enforcement of the Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places Rules, 2008.
From Oct 2, smokers can be fined 200 rupees (S$6.35) for lighting up in all government and private buildings, including cafes, restaurants, schools, pubs, discotheques, stadia, airports, hospitals and bus-stands. Parks and roads are not on the list.
Mr Ramadoss said the fine will be increased to 1,000 rupees in future.
India is set to enforce a new law banning smoking in public places, including bars and restaurants, from Oct 2, as part of efforts to cut a habit that is fast spreading to women and the young.
One of the federal Health Ministry's first targets is Bollywood's reigning star Shah Rukh Khan. It plans to bombard the actor with literature detailing the harm caused by cigarettes.
The government is also targeting other actors whom it feels are influencing youngsters to pick up the habit.
Khan, a chain-smoker who has already been taken to court by a non-government organisation for breaking a law that prohibits smoking in public places, was reportedly spotted lighting up during the shooting of a film at a college in the Sikh holy city of Amritsar in Punjab.
The Punjab health authorities have decided to send a notice to the actor for violating the ban, state officials said.
Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss, who has taken up the anti-smoking campaign as a mission, had earlier appealed to Khan and other leading actors to stop smoking in movies, saying that millions of youngsters who emulate them would pick up the bad habit.
'The movies are most responsible,' he said in a television interview, quoting statistics showing that 52 per cent of children smoked their first cigarette because of movie celebrities.
Khan, however, rejected the appeal. 'I think there is a huge amount of creative freedom and, in the field of art and cinema, we should be allowed that,' he said. 'One should not go around picking on little things - because that's just cinema, it's make-believe and we should not have huge censorship on that.
'I wish Mr Ramadoss prays that I stop smoking in real life because that's worse. In movies, we just do it for make-believe.
'I do not endorse smoking and I do not like anyone telling me personally what to do and what not to do.'
A study published in January showed that there are 120 million smokers in India. In the next decade, one million of them will die each year because of smoking-related diseases.
According to the latest National Family Health Survey, more women are lighting up. Over 31 per cent of women in urban India from 15 to 49 years old now use tobacco in some form, a steep hike from 10 per cent in 1995 to 1996. One third of men in the same age group smoke.
To check this alarming trend, the Health Ministry has decided to step up enforcement of the Prohibition of Smoking in Public Places Rules, 2008.
From Oct 2, smokers can be fined 200 rupees (S$6.35) for lighting up in all government and private buildings, including cafes, restaurants, schools, pubs, discotheques, stadia, airports, hospitals and bus-stands. Parks and roads are not on the list.
Mr Ramadoss said the fine will be increased to 1,000 rupees in future.
Comments