Social Activist Hemant Goswami has been selected for the prestigious international award called, the “Global Smokefree Partnership Award.” The honour is awarded by “The Global Smokefree Partnership,” a joint initiative of over twenty international organisations formed to promote effective smokefree air policies worldwide.

The international award given by the international coalition is coordinated by “American Cancer Society” and includes reputed international organisations like; Cancer Research - UK, Global Tobacco Research Network, International Union Against Cancer, International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, Johnson and Johnson, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Institute for Global Tobacco Control, Action on Smoking and Health - London, Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, Pfizer, Southeast Asia Tobacco Control Alliance, World Heart Federation and others.

Hemant Goswami has been awarded the Extraordinary Award for his exceptional and outstanding commitment as a dedicated smoke-free and tobacco control activist to promote the implementation of the guidelines on Article 8 (smoke-free policies) of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Hemant Goswami is credited with initiating the smoke-free movement in India and for making Chandigarh as the first smoke-free city not only in India but also the first one even in any third world country. A feat which everyone thought would be impossible to achieve in India.

Four awardees were selected from across the world for the 2008 awards. Besides Goswami, the other three who have been selected for the awards are; the Government of Panama, Inter-American Heart Foundation of Mexico and Thailand’s Minister of Health. The previous year’s recipient of the award includes; President of Uruguay, Mr. Tabaré Vázquez; The Roswell Park Cancer Institute and The World Health Organization's Tobacco Free Initiative.

Goswami shall be presented the award at the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco (SRNT) conference in Bangkok, Thailand on Wednesday, October 29th 2008.

ABOUT SMOKE-FREE CHANDIGARH INITIATIVE

It took more than four years of sustained advocacy and efforts by Hemant Goswami, chairperson of Burning Brain Society to achieve the smoke-free status for Chandigarh. Right from building a momentum for tobacco control, to preparing a road map, and getting it executed was done through an aggressive and altogether a new form of activist approach. As an innovation, Hemant used the provisions of “Right to Information Act to make the non-responsive government machinery answerable.

More than 300 “Right to Information (RTI)” petitions were filed by him over a period of one year. The RTI petitions sought detailed information from each government department on the implementation and enforcement of various provisions of tobacco control laws and in case they were not implemented, the name of the person responsible for neglecting his/her duty. In all there were more than eighteen related information requests/questions in the petition. This innovative approach was clubbed with other routine advocacy activities and a media strategy too. Within a year more than 1800 warning boards, as mandated under the tobacco control legislation were displayed in all government offices. Each and every educational institute too started complying with the law and Chandigarh became the first place anywhere in the world where all the educational institutes became hundred percent smoke-free.

Once the initial compliance started and the momentum got built, Hemant started lobbying and selling the idea of smoke-free city to the administration. After sustained effort, the success came in. Chandigarh Police agreed to initiate the enforcement drive and requested Burning Brain Society to sensitize and train the policemen on the provisions of law. This was done immediately and from April 2007, a sustained enforcement drive was initiated by the police.

A comprehensive strategy helped to increase the compliance rate very fast. Within a month the compliance of the 2005 Cigarette and Other Tobacco Products Act reached over 70 percent. This gave confidence to the administration that the “Smoke-Free City” initiative proposed by Hemant was feasible. A series of meetings followed in which actions to be taken and strategies to be followed to have a sustainable and successful “Smoke-Free Chandigarh” initiative were decided. A series of notifications and government orders were promulgated. Finally on July 15, 2007, Chandigarh was declared a smoke-free city.

The entire campaign had to work without any extraneous help from any agency. Hemant reveals that, “Smoke-Free Chandigarh” was not a part of any government or any funding agencies project and not a single paisa was received for the initiative. The whole initiative was carried out independently. Smoke-Free Chandigarh completed a successful one year on July 15, 2008. The project has been sustained for the first year without any support of the Union Government. Currently Hemant and his team are still fighting a lethargic and corrupt government machinery to further keep going the efforts. They are filing hundreds of individual complaints and many court cases not only to sustain the effort but also to stretch the smoke-free initiative limits to new levels.

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ABOUT HEMANT GOSWAMI

Hemant Goswami is a hard-core activist working on the issues of “public health” and “civil rights.” Besides being associated with many other organisations, Goswami also heads the NGO Burning Brain Society and Society for Prevention of Crime and Corruption.

Goswami who is a direct descendant (great grand-son) of Swami Rama Tirtha, the 20th century spiritual guru, left his other professional work to devote his full time to social activism.

His efforts on tobacco control are globally recognised and have resulted in big reverses for the tobacco industry. The legal action taken by him in 2005 forced one of the tobacco company drop the name of a cigarette brand from the bravery award it was giving for promoting its cigarettes. Another tobacco company was forced to withdraw stock of promotional greeting card worth crores from the market and remove the name of its cigarette brand from its greeting cards meant for sale to children. Goswami was also the lead investigator of the WHO study on “Tobacco in movies and its impact on youth,” which proved that the tobacco industry was using movies as a vehicle to promote tobacco among youngsters. The initiation, success and sustenance of the first smoke-free Chandigarh is credited to the efforts of Hemant who despite all odds and the apathy of the Government machinery still pushed the smoke-free initiative in India.

Currently Goswami is working on initiative to sustain the smoke-free Chandigarh initiative and also helping other States achieve smoke-free status. He is also working on a citizen’s movement christened as “Mission Zero Tolerance” to fight corruption.

FCTC & SMOKE-FREE POLICIES

Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is an international binding treaty signed and ratified by the Indian government in 2003. Besides India, the treaty has been signed by over 160 countries across the world which makes it binding on them to take strong measures against tobacco and also to provide smoke-free environment. Article 8 (smoke-free policies) of the FCTC mentions that each since each country agree that scientific evidence has unequivocally established that exposure to tobacco smoke causes death, disease and disability so it shall adopt, implement and provide protection from tobacco smoke by way of effective legislative, executive, administrative and/or other measures, in indoor workplaces, public transport, indoor public places and, as appropriate, other public places.

According to WHO, tobacco use is one of the biggest public health threats the world has ever faced. With more than one billion smokers in the world tobacco causes 5.4 million deaths world wide out of which nearly a million (10 lakh) people die in India every year. WHO states that almost half of the world's children breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke. It is a risk factor for six of the eight leading causes of deaths in the world. 100 million deaths were caused by tobacco in the 20th century and if the current trends continue, there will be up to one billion deaths in the 21st century. Unchecked, tobacco-related deaths will increase to more than eight million a year by 2030, and 80% of those deaths will occur in the developing world.