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Films
showing actors blowing glorious rings of smoke or village elders
smoking a hookah may soon be out of reach for those below 18 years. An
autonomous body helping the Indian government in its fight against
tobacco consumption has suggested that films showing smoking scenes
should be awarded an 'A' (adult) certificate.
Public Health
Foundation of India (PHFI), an autonomous public-private body, was
formed with active involvement of the government to create awareness
against tobacco consumption and help in devising strategies to tackle
the issue.
"We have suggested awarding 'A' certificates to all
movies showing smoking scenes. It's a unanimous decision and the health
ministry has also shown its keenness about it," said PHFI president K.
Srinath Reddy.
"A committee will judge the requirement of the
scene vis-а-vis the story and ask the character who is a part of the
smoking scene to speak against tobacco consumption at the beginning of
the movie, during interval time and at the end of the movie," Reddy
told IANS.
Reddy, who was a former head of the cardiology
department of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), said
movies with smoking scenes are affecting young minds. "The new
suggestion, once implemented, would be an effective tool to curb public
promotion of a wrong thing."
PHFI has an empowered, independent
governing board consisting of representatives from the government,
philanthropists and leading Indian and international professionals.
Its
members include health secretary Naresh Dayal, planning commission
deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Indian Council of Medical
Research (ICMR) chief N.K. Ganguly, Nobel laureates Amartya Sen, Ashok
Alexander, director Avahan - the India AIDS Initiative of the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation.
In India alone, there are over
800,000 tobacco-related deaths every year and it is posing a huge
challenge to the country's public health expenditure and productive
working hours.
According to government estimates, India is home
to 200 million tobacco users. To dissuade people from smoking, pictures
of corpse, cancerous mouth and the caption "your smoking kills babies"
would be displayed on packets of tobacco products from June onwards.
There are currently 1.3 billion addicted smokers across the globe of which five million die every year.
Elaborating
on their suggestions Reddy, who has been awarded by World Health
Organisation (WHO) for his anti-tobacco consumption work said: "During
the smoking scene, a one minute anti-smoking scroll will also run to
negate the message among the audience."
Reddy said a blanket
ban on smoking scenes in movies faced a roadblock after
producer-director Mahesh Bhatt moved the Delhi High Court challenging
the government's proposal two years back.
In an interview to
IANS in November 2006 at Agra, Robert Beaglehole, director of the
chronic diseases and health promotion, WHO, had termed endorsement of
tobacco products by actor Shah Rukh Khan and motor racing legend
Michael Schumacher as "horrible".
Urging them to stop promoting
what was a "social malice", Beaglehole had said: "We know that
celebrities in both Hollywood and Bollywood are endorsing tobacco in a
huge way and we denounce it vehemently. It's really horrible to see
public faces not showing enough responsibility."
Indo-Asian News Service
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