May 31 is observed as World No Tobacco Day. On this day the World Health Organisation urges health institutions and government agencies to organise awareness campaigns on the deleterious effects of tobacco use. Cinema halls regularly show graphic pictures of smokers and tobacco users who end up with cancer of the mouth, throat, tongue, lungs etc. The images are revolting and grotesque yet smokers continue with their ugly habits. The awareness about not smoking in public spaces is also very low in India. Taxi drivers and/or passengers smoke inside the vehicle despite the presence of other passengers and subject them to passive smoking which is equally harmful. People continue to smoke in streets and markets which are all public spaces.
An important objective of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is to control tobacco use. It is viewed as one of the most effective means to help achieve SDG target 3.4 which aims to reduce one-third premature deaths from non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including cardiovascular disease, cancers and chronic obstructed pulmonary disease, globally by 2030. This requires a robust implementation of the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco in all countries as a response to the SDGs. The problem with such objectives is that countries implement them in the breach. Tobacco companies continue to fund political parties to promote their brands. There is a clash of interests even as institutions that push the anti-tobacco campaigns are penalized for their actions by way of fund cuts for their programmes or by unnecessarily meddling with their foreign funding and tightening fund flow vide the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act (FCRA). This is a dichotomy we need to deal with. Unfortunately most governments choose money over the health of their citizens. This is true of India too.
Although all countries benefit from successfully controlling the tobacco epidemic by protecting their citizens from the harms of tobacco use and reducing its economic toll on national economies, their commitment to that cause is highly suspect. The aim of the Sustainable Development Agenda, and its 17 global goals, is to ensure that “no one is left behind.” But if countries don’t commit to this goal then they will once again miss the deadline like they did the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), 2015.