WHY HAVE A NATIONAL NO-TOBACCO DAY!

• Youth in schools and colleges are at greater risk of starting tobacco use  and getting habituated to tobacco. If prevented from     taking up tobacco at  this stage they are unlikely to start using tobacco in the future.
• Educational institutions are the only organized sector of the civil society  where such an activity can be organized conveniently    and sustained  over time. There it can also be a part of the life-skills training of the students.
• Providing health education to youth has not been found to be effective in preventing tobacco use. Rather than teaching them about the health effects of tobacco on a personal level it is important to engage them in  tobacco-control viewing it as a social problem.
• National No-Tobacco Day promises to make no-tobacco a peer-powered phenomena. The energies of the more outgoing amongst the students who are at a greater risk of using tobacco can be channelized against tobacco.
• By engaging this section at an early stage we can over a period of time  build the capacity of the society in the fight against tobacco. It is a fact that no policy measure is going to succeed in the absence of a critical degree of support from the civil society.
• A synchrony and force is vital to de-normalize tobacco (i.e. making it socially unacceptable) and this cannot be achieved by sporadic events.

A National No-Tobacco Day promises to provide this unique opportunity.