The Delhi government’s health department has appealed to the CBSE Director and the education department to derecognise schools which are not following the tobacco-free school guidelines.
Dr S K Arora, Additional Director (health), said they have been urging schools to adopt tobacco-free school guidelines as per its Tobacco Free Delhi initiative in a series of communications by implementing the various legal provisions of Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act (COTPA) 2003, and the Delhi Prohibition of Smoking and Non Smoker’s Health Protection Act 1996.
The provisions include identifying a nodal officer, mandatory display of tobacco-free zone boards and no-smoking signages along with contact details of nodal officers, ensuring prohibition of tobacco sale within a 100-metre radius of an education institute and the constitution of a tobacco- free school committee.
Arora said in the letter that 14.1 per cent students, up to the age 15 years, currently use tobacco products with 4.2 per cent students currently smoking cigarettes. Apart from this, the chewable tobacco use in various patterns is also increasing despite the gutkha and chewable tobaccos bans in Delhi.
Nearly 3 in 10 staff on school campus currently use tobacco and interestingly 84.1 per cent of them believe that their tobacco usage influences youth.