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Context

• Tobacco use in all forms, whether smoking or chewing, is associated with severe COVID-19 casualties, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Details

• Now, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has appealed to the Central Government to strengthen the tobacco control law to prevent the youth from taking up tobacco use.
• Experts have urged the Government to put curbs on the sale of tobacco products to those below 21, to impose a comprehensive ban on tobacco advertising and to ban sale of single sticks of cigarettes/bidis.
• Increasing the minimum legal age for sale of tobacco products from 18 to 21 and banning the sale of loose/single stick of cigarettes by amending COTPA 2003 (Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Act) are crucial to protect youth from tobacco as it has the potential to reduce tobacco use initiation and progression to regular smoking.
• Nearly 27% of all cancers in India are linked to tobacco usage.

Provisions of COTPA ACT, 2013

• The Act prohibits smoking of tobacco in public places, except in special smoking zones in hotels, restaurants and airports and open spaces.
• Advertisement of tobacco products including cigarettes is prohibited.
• Tobacco products cannot be sold to person below the age of 18 years, and in places within 100 yards radius from the outer boundary of an institution of education, which includes school colleges and institutions of higher learning established or recognized by an appropriate authority.
• Tobacco products must be sold, supplied or distributed in a package which shall contain an appropriate pictorial warning, its nicotine and tar contents.
• The owner/manager/in-charge of a public place must display a board containing the warning “No Smoking Area – Smoking here is an offence ” in appropriate manner at the entrance and inside the premises.
• The Act also gives power to any police officer, not below the rank of a sub-inspector or any officer of State Food or Drug Administration or any other officer, holding the equivalent rank being not below the rank of Sub-Inspector of Police for search and seizure of premises where tobacco products are produced, stored or sold, if he suspects that the provision of the Act has been violated.

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