By Waquar Hasan,
New Delhi, 17 Oct 2015: As a survey found most people saying Gutka ban is good for the health of youth, Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain said the state government will submit these findings to the Delhi High Court (HC) to lift stay on Gutka ban and take necessary steps against its sale and storage.
In Dec 2012, the Delhi government had prohibited the sale, manufacture, distribution, transportation, display and storage of Gutka but the ban was later stayed by the Delhi HC.
The study, released by Jain on Friday, was conducted by the Centre for Communication and Change-India (CCC-I) in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Eight Indian states – Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Orissa were covered during 2014 for the study. According to the study, 92 per cent of people surveyed in these eight states supported the ban and 99 per cent of the respondents agreed that gutka ban was good for the health of youth.
“The Delhi High Court, however, had asked the state government not to take any coercive action against the petitioners to enforce the ban. We will submit these findings to the court so that necessary steps can be taken to ensure that the notification is duly implemented in the interest of public health,” Jain was quoted by The Hindu.
Ironically while the Delhi government has been maintaining firm stand against Gutka, it is in favor of lowering the drinking age in the national capital. Alcoholism is considered behind many diseases and is a major public health issue in India. Some states, such as Gujarat, have a complete ban on liquor.
Interestingly, while Delhi is still awaiting the HC decision, there are 24 states and three union territories where Gutka is banned.
Recently, a national students group, the Student Islamic Organization (SIO)’s Delhi zone launched a statewide anti-drugs campaign in the capital.
Calling the study findings “good news,” SIO’s Delhi Zone President Khan Yasir emphasized on a ban on all intoxicating substances.
“It is a primary responsibility of the governments to ensure that intoxicating substances like drugs, alcohol and tobacco, which jeopardize the most precious asset called the life, do not have a free run in our society. But the tragedy is that the governments, till now, have shown only cosmetic interests in discouraging these substances. It is good news if the Delhi government is pushing forward for some serious steps in this regard,” he said.
Khan, however, argued that legal steps are not enough and they can be effective only if there are moral values and self-beliefs attached.
“It is to be seen how sincere and effective these steps would eventually prove to be. It should also be added that legal steps are one of the necessary steps, but they are not sufficient themselves. They can be effective only if they emanate from self-belief and moral values of the society. Work at this front is almost negligible. SIO, Delhi – with its meagre resources – is trying to fight the menace from this multidimensional perspective,” added Khan.
