SHILLONG, April 1: Meghalaya has won appreciation for effective implementation of the ‘Tobacco Free Educational Institution’ (ToFEI) programme designed to curb the use of tobacco by school students, said Health Minister James Sangma.
Speaking at the inaugural function of the Midterm Conference of Indian Association of Surgical Oncology (IASO), which was held at the State Convention Centre here between March 25 and 27, the minister said Meghalaya, in recent times, has shown the way in cancer prevention.
This is the first instance of the conduct of major conference of the IASO in North East, which saw the participation of over 300 cancer surgeons.
IASO is the national association for cancer surgeons in the country.
On the occasion, Sangma also launched the Northeast India Association of Surgical Oncology (NASO), which is a newly formed association of cancer surgeons of Northeast India.
He added, “Meghalaya tops the list of cancers which are known to be caused by tobacco. It is sad to note that 70.4% of cancers in men and 46.5% of cancers in women of East Khasi Hills are preventable. These are all tobacco-related cancers and by shunning tobacco, we would be left with fewer cancers to treat. As per the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS 2016-17), 47% of people in Meghalaya use tobacco, as compared to the national average of 28.4%. Tobacco, in any form, is the most important cause of cancer.”
Dr Caleb Harris, who is the organising secretary of the conference and the secretary of NASO, thanked the minister for his efforts in curbing tobacco use in the state.
He also emphasised the role played by cancer surgeons in treating cancer, adding that many lives are saved by shunning tobacco.
Dr Rajendra Toprani, president of IASO and a leading Head Neck Cancer Surgeon from Ahmedabad, said that Meghalaya tops the country in the incidence of Esophageal (food pipe) cancer, with more than 10 times the national average.
Director of NEIGRIHMS, Dr Nalin Mehta, on the other hand, assured the support of the institute in cancer control, while adding that a study to understand the reason for high esophageal cancer in Meghalaya is under way in NEIGRIHMS, involving the Civil Hospital, Shillong, too.
The conference saw top cancer surgeons from across the country coming over to Shillong and sharing their knowledge and experiences on the theme ‘skills sets in surgical oncology’. Also, over 175 research papers were presented during this conference.
The minister also explained in detail about ToFEI.
He said under the project, every educational institution has to do 11 anti-tobacco activities every academic year for a scorecard of 100 marks.
In the last one year, Meghalaya has undertaken this programme in more than 10,000 schools which have done more than 51,000 activities to date.
These schools involve about 47,000 teachers and 6.8 lakh students, whose attitude towards tobacco has now started to change.
It will take some time for behavioural change to happen but it has been observed that a good start has been made.
In November 2021, the Health department conducted a ‘Tobacco Teachers Survey’ to determine the knowledge & attitude of our teachers.
As many as 3986 teachers responded in the largest such survey ever done, which provided valuable insights about the interventions needed.
A very positive finding was that 99% of teachers felt that students should not use tobacco and 91% wanted it banned.
Sale of tobacco products is banned within 100 yards of schools under COTPA (the Cigarettes & Other Tobacco Products Act, 2003) and as part of the ToFEI programme, the Health Department has been collecting data from schools about shops violating this law near their schools. Till date, data from more than 7,800 schools across the state has been collected.
In July 2021, it was found that an alarming 44% of schools reported violations.
Working closely with the Education department, the District Administration and the Police, till January 2022, this percentage had been reduced to 31%, which is considered a significant achievement because all over the country, it has been particularly difficult to stop sales near schools.
Since 2003, more than six High Court orders have asked governments to stop such sale. Action is taken and sale is reduced for some time, only to restart.
The Meghalaya model of close cooperation between various departments would be a first in the country to systemically reduce sales near schools.a