K A L E I D O S C O P E

Prime concern: HEALTH
Es-chewing gutkha, for good
By Aditi Tandon
The risk of smokeless tobacco use is alarming, with 90 per cent oral cancers in India linked to it. Until 2011, tobacco ban was inconceivable in India given the pulls and pressures of the powerful smoking and smokeless tobacco lobbies. But from August, the unimaginable became real and the manufacture, storage and sale of gutkha, pan masala and other consumable products containing nicotine and tobacco was banned across the country. Though 12 states have imposed the ban, 23 have yet to act.

Last word: Mohammed Hamid Ansari
As VP or in Parliament, poise his hallmark
By KV Prasad
Mohammed Hamid Ansari, a career-diplomat who made a transition to the world of academia and politics appear seamless, is a man of many parts. He is an avid reader of books and literature, with published works on international affairs, and an engaging conversationalist who is equally at home on the golf course.

Prime concern: HEALTH
Es-chewing gutkha, for good
By Aditi Tandon

The risk of smokeless tobacco use is alarming, with 90 per cent oral cancers in India linked to it. Until 2011, tobacco ban was inconceivable in India given the pulls and pressures of the powerful smoking and smokeless tobacco lobbies. But from August, the unimaginable became real and the manufacture, storage and sale of gutkha, pan masala and other consumable products containing nicotine and tobacco was banned across the country. Though 12 states have imposed the ban, 23 have yet to act.

A landmark

On August 5, 2011, the health ministry notified the new prevention of food adulteration rules. The notification issued by the apex food regulator — the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India — clarified under the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Regulations, 2011, “tobacco and nicotine will not be used as ingredients in food products”.

The public health implication was clear — since gutkha, khaini, masheri and tooth pastes were food products, consumed for flavour or use, they could not contain injurious substances like nicotine or tobacco, proven carcinogens.

Taking a cue from the Central regulation, 12 states, starting with Madhya Pradesh on April 1, banned the production and sale of gutkha and pan masalas containing tobacco and seized smokeless tobacco packages worth several lakhs of rupees. MP was followed by Kerala, Bihar, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Punjab, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Chandigarh. Since health is a state subject, it is left to the states to enforce the ban.

On the face of it, these developments may look lame but they have tremendous potential to reverse a public health epidemic. Smokeless tobacco is associated with a high prevalence of oral cancers in India which sees about 80,000 oral cancer cases annually.

“India has 275 million tobacco users, out of which 206 million use smokeless tobacco. Khaini is the most used followed by gutkha. That explains the urgency of the ban,” says Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, cancer specialist at Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai. The ban is even more significant considering gutkha and khaini producers are mainly targeting schoolchildren.

Experts argue that gutkha and pan masala ban will yield results only when it is pan-India, otherwise smuggling from other states will dent enforcement efforts in anti-gutkha states.

Sanjay Kumar, Commissioner, Food Safety, Bihar, agrees: “We have seized gutkha and pan masala worth about Rs 40 lakh in three months and are concentrating around schools because young children are the potential consumers. But we are seeing consignments trickling in from the neighbouring West Bengal, which is yet to ban tobacco. Once all states notify the ban, we will see the real results.”

The exact size of the gutkha and pan masala industry in India is not known as 90 per cent manufacturing is in the unorganised sector. An estimate provided by the Smokeless Tobacco Federation of India says the industry is worth around Rs 20,000 crore. The gutkha ban by 11 states is believed to have cost the sector around Rs 10,000 crore already.

Battling it out

The industry had filed multiple cases in the High Courts of MP, Bihar and Kerala, challenging the state ban orders, but there have been decisive victories. A Bench of the MP High Court has dismissed the industry petition requesting a stay on the ban. Public interest petitions have been filed in Kerala, UP and Karnataka, urging the states to ban gutkha. The UP court has issued an interim ruling, ordering the government to implement the ban. This is significant since UP is the heart of India’s gutkha industry. The Supreme Court is hearing a case to ban gutkha altogether.

Proven carcinogens

On March 11, 2011, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told Parliament that there were over 3,000 chemical ingredients in smokeless tobacco such as gutkha and khaini. Out of these, 28 chemicals were proven carcinogens, the most abundant being tobacco-specific N Nitrosamines which are directly linked to cancer risk.

Besides, the latest WHO Global Report, “Mortality Attributable to Tobacco”, says two in five deaths among adults aged 30 and above in India are caused due to the use of smokeless tobacco. “Tobacco chewing can cause cancers of the mouth, food pipe, larynx, pharynx, pancreas, stomach, kidney and lung. Use of smokeless tobacco during pregnancy can cause still birth, low birth weight in babies, premature delivery and anaemia. In India, out of 206 million smokeless tobacco users, 70 million are women,” says Rajan Badwe, Director, Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai.

“If I have to suggest a single intervention with a potential to dramatically reduce mouth cancer in India, it would be curbing the prevalence of gutkha and pan masala chewing,” he emphasises.

The current ban will impact 31 million gutkha users, the highest being 82.93 lakh in MP; followed by 68.45 lakh in Maharashtra and 53.10 lakh in Rajasthan. Gutkha consuming population in Haryana is 20.87 lakh and 5.61 lakh in Himachal. The ban in Punjab can positively impact 5.6 lakh gutkha users and in J&K, 6.8 lakh users.

Catching them young

Gutkha and khaini producers are mainly targeting schoolchildren. Every day, over 5,500 children in India start using smokeless tobacco due to easy availability and low cost. It is a mild stimulant and is sold in sachets costing Rs 1 to Rs 6. “We are now seeing 11-year-old children with pre-cancerous growths in just two years of chewing tobacco,” says Dr Pankaj Shah, Director, Gujarat Cancer Research Institute, Ahmedabad, terming gutkha as one of the most hazardous consumer products ever known.

The challenge

Is banning tobacco in gutkha and pan masala enough? Sanjay Kumar, pointing holes in the law. “The sale of pure tobacco is not banned in India nor is the sale of non-tobacco containing gutkha or pan masala. People can buy pure tobacco and pan masala separately from the market, mix the two and consume it. Lawmakers must address this gap and raise awareness against tobacco use,” he says.

Last word: Mohammed Hamid Ansari
As VP or in Parliament, poise his hallmark
By KV Prasad

An early riser, Ansari often sends messages to his staff to check out an article or write-up that has appeared in a morning daily, much before they would have collected the newspapers from their doorstep.

Mohammed Hamid Ansari, a career-diplomat who made a transition to the world of academia and politics appear seamless, is a man of many parts. He is an avid reader of books and literature, with published works on international affairs, and an engaging conversationalist who is equally at home on the golf course.

Born 76 years ago in Kolkata, Ansari’s family hails from Ghazipur in Eastern UP. He is the grand-nephew of the illustrious Dr Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari, a freedom fighter and former president of the Indian National Congress. Steeped in the tradition of cultured members of the community, Ansari does everything to maintain the dignity of the high office he holds.

Suave and sober best describe Ansari, whose strict sense of personal discipline reflects in his personality and conduct. Not known to lose temper, he is dignified even under the most trying circumstances that he faces as Chairman of the Rajya Sabha.

Gentle but firm

Even when the House proceedings reflect chaos, Ansari is at his persuasive best, requesting members to “please sit down”, or says with inimitable tehzeeb, “baith jaiye”— a gentle but firm rebuke, delivered with a smile.

To conduct the proceedings of the House that represents an increasingly fractious polity of the country is no mean task. Yet, over the past five years that he has been Rajya Sabha Chairman, Ansari persistently attempted to bring about discipline in making members effectively employ the parliamentary tools.

Streamlining procedures of Zero Hour submissions to a three-minute limit, encouraging debate and seeking to shift the Question Hour to avoid the prime forum, meant for members to hold the government accountable, from being disrupted in the Rajya Sabha show his constant effort to maintain and strengthen parliamentary oversight of the executive.

The sophisticated aspect notwithstanding, Ansari has been bold when needed, and taken criticism in his stride after controversies erupted over the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill, when marshals were allowed to physically remove protesting members, or the sudden sine die adjournment at the stroke of midnight last year amid procedural wrangling between the ruling coalition and Opposition Benches over the contentious Lokpal Bill.

Ansari refrained from joining the issue publicly, and his office avoided the temptation of seeking to correct the impression through background briefings. He conducted himself with dignity in the run-up to the candidature for the office of the President or the Vice-President election later. Ansari and his office kept a healthy distance from the campaign, even as a rash of speculative reports kept swirling through the corridors of power in Delhi on both occasions.

Presiding, and more

The Vice-President is an ex-officio member of the Rajya Sabha, and there is more to the office than presiding over the House. Bringing to the office his experience in the field of diplomacy, Ansari carries on with work representing India in bilateral and international fora, both at home and abroad.

He shares the unique distinction of being the first person after Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan to become the Vice-President for a second consecutive term. There are two other facets that both share in the field of education and diplomacy. Dr Radhakrishnan was the Vice-Chancellor of Andhra and Banaras Hindu University and served as India’s envoy to the erstwhile United Socialist Soviet Republic. Ansari served as the head of Indian missions in Afghanistan, Australia, Iran, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and was also the UN Permanent Representative. He held the office of the Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University, an institution he had attended as a student of political science.

If his illustrious predecessor was a philosopher-statesman, Ansari is a scholar-statesman. His area of expertise is West Asia and he authored a book Politics of West Asia, besides editing Iran Today: Twenty Five Years After the Islamic Revolution. He has published several academic papers and newspaper articles on West Asian politics.

And he’s been well accepted in all shades of politics. The BJP-led NDA government appointed him Vice-Chancellor, the Congress-led UPA made him Chairman of the National Minorities Commission and the Left parties suggested his name for the vice-presidential election in 2007.

One may call it destiny, but Ansari stayed at 6 Maulana Azad Road, the official bungalow of the Vice-President, some six decades ago when it was allotted to Rafi Ahmed Kidwai in the post-Partition turmoil days.

That the septuagenarian Ansari’s vital health parameters are within normal limits, unaided by any medicine, comes as no surprise. Ansari goes for regular morning walks in the lush green lawns of the bungalow, before updating himself on what is happening around the world. Besides the inexpensive walks that every neighbourhood doctor recommends, his lifestyle management mantra includes periodic practice of a set of yogasanas and a frugal eating habit.

Daily diligence

An early riser, Ansari often sends messages to his staff to check out an article or write-up that has appeared in a morning daily, much before they would have collected the newspapers from their doorstep. Occasionally, he drops by to hear an expert speak to the Saturday Club at the India International Centre.

For someone who has no dearth of staff for official work, Ansari prefers to do his own work — be it editing speeches, searching for books in library stacks or browsing the Net for the latest on his subjects of interest. He is at ease using modern gadgets like the iPad or the ubiquitous Blackberry, which he uses to communicate with friends and others.

Little wonder, he pushed the Rajya Sabha Secretariat to go paperless, and now every MP can access parliamentary documents inside the chamber on an official tablet.