SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Nov 18: The education department in collaboration with the Socio Economic and Educational Development Society (SEEDS) began a campaign on Friday to make schools of the Dhanbad district tobacco-free.
Under the central government’s ambitious project Tobacco Free Educational Institutions (ToFEI), 10 schools of four districts in Jharkhand –Ranchi, Dhanbad, Bokaro and Jamshedpur (East Singhbhum) have been selected on the pilot basis.
To implement the ToFEI guidelines in Dhanbad, the education department along with SEEDS, the technical consultation partner of the government of Jharkhand, held a workshop for principals of 10 schools where the district tobacco cell officials informed them about the project’s aim.
Divisional educational officer (DEO) Ashish Kumar while inaugurating the workshop said, “Tobacco is emerging as a global challenge and it is our responsibility to save the future generation from this habit. As per the direction of the Schooling Education and Literacy department of the state government, we along with SEEDS have to aware students and youth about the bad impact of tobacco.”
SEEDS executive director Dipak Kumar, who had come from Delhi, shed light on the importance of the tobacco ban and the exigency of making schools free of it.
“Every year, 13 lakh people die from tobacco consumption. The tobacco industry is trying to catch young people to fill up consumer vacancies left out by deaths. Youth and minors will remain the industry’s consumers for a long time. So the Indian government has planned to keep making its new consumers,” said Dipak Mishra.
He went on to say that Jharkhand has made a major leap in reducing the tobacco prevalence rate. As per the GAITS-2 survey report, the tobacco prevalence rate in Jharkhand has dropped to 38.95 from 50.1%.
District nodal officer Dr Manju Das said, “It is our responsibility to keep our youth and minors away from tobacco. District Schooling and Literacy department under the guidelines and cooperation with SEEDS would work to make the educational institutions tobacco-free.”
SEEDS consultant Somil Rastogi suggested working as per the guidelines of ToFEI and informed the school principals and tobacco control programme officials about the actions being taken in other states.
Kailash Chandra Sahu, SEEDS state coordinator, district tobacco control cell Rahul Kumar, Rimple Jha (SEEDS) also addressed the audience on the occasion.
