The aforementioned Act allows for a spot fine of Rs 100 for public smoking which, if one were to get caught would make for quite an expensive cigarette. There is no better deterrent for us Nepalis than being hit right where it matters: our pockets, and you can trust our police to make good use of this knowledge.Their enforcement arsenal is predominantly made up of a range of fines and they use these fines – whether it is for jaywalking, helmet straps, license and bill books, seat belts, errant public transport drivers – to very good effect.
But unlike 'ma pa se' which seems to divide opinion on enforcement due to the ridiculous zero tolerance policy, I have yet to meet anyone not in favour of this course of action. It's not like the dust and dirt of Kathmandu haven't given us enough respiratory problems that we need to add second hand smoke to it. No one begrudges the police this initiative – not when their intent is social well-being although an important by product, and dare I say it the main incentive for the enforcement of any rules for our men in uniform is the financial collections.
But if I'm not mistaken their action was very limited and it has already lost steam before it even kicked into second gear. It is understandable because it just isn't possible to ask our under staffed police force to initiate, never mind sustain, an operation of this kind for prolonged periods of time. Imagine having to police all the gullies and side streets of Kathmandu. It is neither a practical nor realistic method to get the nation to kick this cancerous habit.
An obvious way to combat this menace would be to limit its supply but this would just end up promoting unfair trade practices and we of all countries don't need to be familiarized with black marketing practices. Our government, like others around the world, takes punitive measures like increasing the tax on cigarettes to punish smokers ostensibly to encourage them to quit and deter others from starting. Initiatives of this kind have tended to give modest results at best.
What we can (and should) do though is educate and make our kids aware of its harmful effects at an early age, preferably through formal education in schools. Smoking starts off for most people at a very early age because of the 'cool' factor associated with it and it is this 'coolness' that needs to be removed from the equation. All we do is lecture our kids on why they are bad (and they know it all too well) without actually informing them what it does to our body. All those graphic videos and messages should be shared at an early age to put the fear of god (or in this case – cigarettes) into them.
Young people are among the most vulnerable to picking up the habit yet we have these 'hookah bars' – to borrow a phrase from that atrocious song – that are targeted specifically at the youth. The alarming thing is that a lot of people are under the impression that it is not as harmful as cigarettes because the smoke is filtered through water, it is flavoured with fruit or some other convenient delusion that they harbour to reassure themselves. In this day and age when everyone's glued to the web on their phones, being wilfully misinformed of its consequences is criminal to say the least.
Instead of just stopping at legislation, we should also open our country to products that offer nicotine replacement therapy like nicotine patches, gums and lozenges which are available in a lot of countries (even underdeveloped) except Nepal. There exists – if my local chemist is to be believed – a powerful cigarette lobby working behind the scenes to block their introduction in this country. His claim doesn't seem that farfetched because as more and more people in advanced counties are weaned off this habit and the noose tightens around tobacco companies in terms of restrictions, it is poorer countries like Nepal where they hope to increase their sales.
It would be all too easy to quote statistics from various bodies to indulge in scaremongering but we all, including our government, know the facts. They should prioritize this issue but it will take no small amount of willpower, of the political kind, to wean this country off this habit to prevent our future from going up in smoke.
gunjan.u@gmail.com
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