The Hindu : New Delhi News : Bid to make campus tobacco-free

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Sunday, Jun 01, 2008
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Bid to make campus tobacco-free

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: In a bid to strengthen its anti-tobacco efforts, Delhi University will disseminate educational material and literature on harmful uses of tobacco to admission seekers along with the prospectus when sale and receipt of common pre-admission forms begins this Monday.

At the three admission information centres on the North Campus, literature will be provided to the students at help desks set up there.

“This year at some of the ‘Open Day’ sessions, pamphlets and material on consumption of tobacco and diseases caused by its use were distributed among the audience. When freshers come to buy the forms, that is the best time to inform them about the University’s anti-tobacco campaign,” said Dr.G. R. Khatri, president of the World Lung Foundation, South Asia, the technical collaborator of the University in making the North Campus a “tobacco-free zone”.

At a press conference on Saturday, University Proctor Gurmeet Singh spelt out the proposed interventions in running this campaign.

“I have written to college principals requesting them to nominate a nodal officer from among the teachers and constitute a tobacco-free brigade comprising students in their institution to coordinate anti-tobacco activities at the college level. I have also asked them to activate their students from National Service Scheme and National Cadet Corps to work for the campaign,” he added.

Dr. Khatri told reporters that the Foundation had adopted a multi-pronged strategy to focus on the North Campus which will be the “intensive area” and then shift to the remaining colleges of the University that will be the “twilight area”.

“We have started educating local residents and the police station staff. Our focus is on education. There will be regular continuing medical education programmes to inform the youth and the community about dangers of tobacco, promoting awareness about external tobacco smoke and how they can quit smoking. We are looking at a proposal to financially support vendors selling tobacco on the campus to help them start alternative vocation and we might provide them with microfinance facility for that,” he informed.

The sensitisation of the nodal officers and the tobacco-free brigade will begin once the new academic session begins.

“We will also conduct a baseline survey of all the colleges to see the smoking pattern among students and the effect of our campaign. During college festivals, we will take portable carbon monoxide estimators to show students how their lungs are being affected because of smoking,” Dr. Khatri added.

Lifestyle diseases

Vice-Chancellor Deepak Pental said in these times of lifestyle diseases, students should be encouraged to lead a healthy life by persuading them to kick the habit of smoking and take up physical exercises. He also spoke about the possibility of starting a post-graduate course in Physical Education during the 2010-11 academic year when the University hopes to be equipped with many more sports facilities in view of the Commonwealth Games to be held in 2010.

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