Teachers crucial in fight against tobacco: VHAG
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, OCT 13
The Voluntary Health Association of Goa feels teachers in schools can make a big difference in creating tobacco-free institutions by drilling into young minds at a very early age ‘smoking can kill’.
Convinced of this fact, VHAG has now formulated a workshop on October 23, 2010, at the Caritas Holiday Home in St Inez, here, to discuss the role teachers could play in implementing tobacco laws in schools.
The workshop, being held in collaboration with Voluntary Health Association of India, National Organisation for Tobacco Eradication (NOTE) and Goa Civic and Consumer Action Network, seeks to discuss various implementation strategies to put action plan into practise.
In August this year, VHAG conducted 13 advocacy sessions in 10 schools in North Goa covering Amona, Naveli, Pissurle, Cudne, Kirlapal-Dabal, Sanvordem and Panchwadi with an objective of empowering students to create tobacco-free environment.
One of the sessions involved showing students strong images of hazards of tobacco use. They were also shown a documentary film on ‘beedi’ rolling that portrayed how children were exploited and the effects of tobacco on their health.
The advocacy sessions covered 560 students of Stds VIII and IX and 30 teachers. Answering a question, 22 per cent of the students said their family members consumed tobacco and 68 per cent said no, while 10 per cent did not answer.
Out of 22 per cent of the students, 8 per cent said their parents smoked tobacco (i.e. cigarettes, beedi, cigars, etc); 7 per cent said their parents used smokeless tobacco like Star, Gutkha, etc, 2.5 per cent said their parents used both forms of tobacco (i.e. smoking and smokeless) and 4 per cent did not mention the form of tobacco used.
