COP7 meet kicks off amidst protests

Nearly 500 farmers from tobacco growing countries were detained by the Noida police for protesting outside the conference venue.

Tobacco farmers protest against the WHO COP7 meet, in New Delhi on Monday. — Photo: Kamal Narang

The seventh session of the Conference of the Parties (COP7) began amidst controversy in New Delhi on Monday.

Nearly 500 farmers from tobacco growing countries were detained by the Noida police for protesting outside the conference venue, which is hosting over 1,500 delegates from 180 countries in the world's biggest convention on tobacco control policy.

Tobacco use kills around 6 million people a year globally, with nearly a million deaths in India alone.

The farmers were demanding that the conference organisers allow them to participate in the meeting as an important stakeholder. Protesting under the banner of Federation of All India Farmers Association (FAIFA), the farmers called the COP7 a "non-inclusive and non-transparent" process, and said that it was an ‘undemocratic’ negotiation .

"This is an undemocratic process and the organisers are using industry interference as an reason to not engage with us," said B.V. Jaware Gowda, President of FAIFA. The farmers read out a set of demands for a probe to expose the hidden agenda of non-state actors in WHO FCTC operations, to provide equally remunerative alternative crop options for all tobacco growers across the globe, to investigate financial records of all anti-tobacco NGOs and the motives of their financial contributors.

Stating that the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) was the “strongest tool to curb emerging non-communicable diseases”, Health Minister J.P Nadda inaugurated the conference which was attended by Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena.

India’s challenges

India will be pushing for stricter control on smokeless tobacco. “Challenges faced by India in tobacco control are formidable. This last year has been a landmark year for India with the implementation of 85% pictorial warnings on cigarette packets. Further, we now have a Juvenile Justice Act which makes sale of tobacco products to minors punishable with 7 years of rigorous imprisonment,” said Mr Nadda.

The conference is pitting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government against a $11 billion tobacco industry, which has expressed concern about the ‘unhindered access to tobacco control activists and NGOs to the conference.”

Spokesperson for the industry lobby group Tobacco Institute of India, Syed Mahmood Ahmad, said, “We are concerned that anti tobacco activists and NGOs continue to wage a relentless campaign to influence Tobacco Control Policies in the country and promote a propaganda that the Indian Government is obligated under the FCTC to implement provisions of the FCTC and introduce further regulations which are inimical to tobacco cultivation and the farming community.”