Smokefree Dhar

Madhya Pradesh Voluntary Health Association in collaboration with The Union and district Administration Badwani organized a workshop for Smokefree Dhar on 30 March 2011. More than 50 participants from various departments and other stakeholders participated in the workshop. The workshop was organized in order to declare Dhar as Smokefree District.

Badwani District will become Smokefree

Madhya Pradesh Voluntary Health Association in collaboration with The Union and district Administration Badwani organized a workshop for Smokefree Badwani on 21 March 2011. More than 70 participants from various departments and other stakeholders participated in the workshop. The workshop was organized in order to declare Badwani as Smokefree District. Administration has committed its full support for the implementation of Tobacco Control Act in the district.

Burhanpur District will become Smokefree

Madhya Pradesh Voluntary Health Association in collaboration with The Union and district Administration Burhanpur organized a workshop for Smokefree Burhanpur on 14 March 2011. More than 70 participants from various departments and other stakeholders participated in the workshop. The workshop was organized in order to declare Badwani as Smokefree District. Administration has committed its full support for the implementation of Tobacco Control Act in the district.

8 Districts of Indore Division (Indore, Dhar, Khandwa, Khargone, Burhanpur, Badwani,Jhabua, Alirajpur) will be made Smokefree.

Minister of state for Health Governmant of Madhya Pradesh Mr Mahendra Hardia said that the government will ensure support for making public places of Indore Division Smokefree.

Madhya Pradesh Voluntary Health Association with support from Bloomberg Philanthropies will make public places, workplaces and transports of 8 districts smokefree in state of Madhya Pradesh(India) through advocacy and sensitization of law enforcers; stakeholders; capacity building; community mobilization; public awareness; effective enforcement of smokefree provisions of legislation and monitoring and evaluation and thus to establish a replicable model of tobacco control initiative.

The purpose is to ensure the effective implementation of Tobacco Law in rural periphery in addition to semi urban and urban jurisdictions and establish rural-urban smoke-free model. This will build the capacity of law enforcers at the lowest administrative setup, protect the people from harmful effects of secondhand smoke and mobilize the community for sustainable smokefree places and behavioral change.

New Pictorial warnings on tobacco products

Recent decision by government to implement pictorial warnings of mouth cancer on tobacco products is a good step towards controlling the tobacco epidemic, Pictorial warnings on tobacco products can play an important role in a country like India where most of the illiterate and other people consumes tobacco without knowing the dangers of the product. Dangerous pictorial warning will be effective in preventing and alarming the tobacco users and also to small children who are now the main target. Now the real challenge is to implement the pictorial warnings on tobacco products as most of the tobacco products are still being sold with old pictorial warnings having lung cancer and scorpion photographs which are not very effective. The implementation of new pictorial warning will give a boost to tobacco control movement in India.

Sensitization workshop for NGOs on tobacco control laws and related issues.

MPVHA in collaboration with Voluntary health Association of India organized a workshop for NGO personnel on tobacco control laws and related issues.30 members from Indore division participated in the workshop.

Objective of the workshop

1. To orient the NGOs on Tobacco control laws and related issues in India.
2. To expand the project area in new territories.
3. To create a movement for smokefree in the concerned districts by monitoring and implementation of the tobacco act COTPA.
During the workshop the NGOs were oriented on tobacco epidemic and tobacco law COTPA. They were also trained on the monitoring of the tobacco act implementation in their respective districts.
A checklist was developed for NGOs to monitor the public places in the respective districts .They were told to monitor prominent public places in their district and prepare a report on implementation of the act. During the program mapping of all the NGOs was also done in relation with tobacco control activities .

Release of report and documentary film on workers employed in Tobacco Industry

Madhya Pradesh Voluntary Health Association in collaboration with Voluntary Health Association of India organized the release of report At the Crossroads of Life and Livelihood: The Economics, Poverty and Working Conditions of People Employed in the Tobacco Industry in India and documentary film Giving away so much for so little. The programme was attended by 80 persons from various fields like NGOs, Police, government officials,media persons etc.The programme was organized on 09 July 2010 at Hotel Palash Bhopal at 10 – 12 Pm.


Release of the study and film
The programmes started with the release of the study At the Crossroads of Life and Livelihood: The Economics, Poverty and Working Conditions of People Employed in the Tobacco Industry in India and documentary film Giving away so much for so little .The study and film were released by the chief guest Shri Manoj Shrivastava, Commissioner, Bhopal Division, Dr AN Mittal, Director Health Services, Shri Vineet Kapoor AIG Training Police, Dr PR Deo State Coordinator UNFPA, Dr Ramesh Nagrath, President MPVHA and Mukesh Kumar Sinha, Executive Director, MPVHA.


Objective of the program


 To investigate tobacco as a development issue.

 To identify issues associated with bidi rolling, tobacco farming, and tendu leaf plucking across different regions of the country, with regard to socio-economic, health and working conditions.

 To identify issues related to poverty among those employed in the tobacco industry.

 To develop an evidence-based advocacy tool to counter the arguments of the tobacco industry about the benefits of tobacco-related employment and to advocate for measures for alternative livelihoods of the tobacco workers.

 To identify the level of satisfaction of tobacco workers ( bidi rollers, tobacco farmers and tendu pluckers) regarding working conditions and remuneration.