Taking exception to MP for Mysuru Pratap Simha’s demand for the grant of licence to 11,000 unlicensed tobacco farmers in Mysuru, Chamarajanagar and Hassan, the Anti-Tobacco Forum, Mysuru, has urged the Centre to ignore the demand, which contravenes India’s position against promoting tobacco consumption.
In a statement here, forum convenor Vasanthkumar Mysoremath pointed out that India was a signatory to the World Health Organization-sponsored Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and was implementing an anti-tobacco campaign to fulfil its international commitment to reducing tobacco consumption by 2025.
He said it is the duty of responsible MPs to help India honour its commitment to the FCTC and advise farmers to adopt alternative crops so that the supply of raw material to the tobacco industry is reduced, Mr. Mysoremath said. “Instead of seeking licence for of unlicensed growers of tobacco, they [MPs] must initiate healthy debates in Parliament demanding necessary plans of action to help tobacco farmers give up tobacco and take up farming of alternate crops that can fetch them more income than tobacco,” Mr. Mysoremath said. He said the MPs should also advise farmers about the urgent need to voluntarily stop tobacco cultivation, with the help of tobacco control plans of action, and to surrender their licences and barns. Similarly, he added, MPs must suggest to the government ways to rehabilitate other workers and traders dependent on the tobacco industry.
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Though more than 12 lakh people die every year on account of tobacco abuse in the country, Mr. Mysoremath said, India, paradoxically, has classified tobacco as a cash crop and permits its cultivation with government support through subsidies, supply of inputs and easy loans.