There are dilemmas among normal people when their actions/decisions are likely to harm anyone but there appears to be no two thoughts in the tobacco industry mind when it comes to promoting tobacco. They seem to have no conscience. This pattern is more or less uniform all over the world.

In India advertising has been completely banned (At least in the legislation) and no tobacco company is allowed to advertise. However some smart demons have found a cheap and strategic way to advertise their chewing tobacco to children.

Flying Kites is a popular pastime among children in many parts of India. Using this pastime as tool many tobacco companies have started advertising their tobacco products on kites. These kites are then distributed among children.

A child with Kites containing advertisement of chewing tobacco.

The kite makers are provided poly sheet (free of cost) to make kites and distribute it among children. Because of the free material and incentives the kites are priced at about less than 50 paisa a piece (I.e. one can buy over100 kites in one US dollar) making it an attractive proposition for children. Many times these kites are also distributed free-of-cost to children. For tobacco companies, this ensures tobacco brand identification at the right age.

That the kites carry chewing tobacco advertisements is no accident. This can be assessed from the fact that this practice has continued for more than two years now. The material used on the kites is different than the usual packaging material which means that these sheets are specially printed for making kites and distribution among children (And not some waste from the packaging material).

We have made a formal complaint to the Indian Health Ministry and the Minister for Health, India (Copy annexed hereunder) when we found these kites were also available (For wholesale) without any restrictions within 5 kilometer radius of the Health Ministries office.

BBS/MoHc/MN/08/002

August 8, 2006

Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, Union Minister for Health

Ministry of Health & Family Welfare

A “Wing,” Nirman Bhawan, Maulana Azad Road,

New Delhi-110011

TACTICS OF THE CHEWING TOBACCO INDUSTRY TO REACH CHILDREN – APPEAL TO INTERVENE

Sir,

We would like to bring to your kind attention the nefarious design of the chewing tobacco industry to reach young children to promote their tobacco products.

Since nearly last two years (Since the advertisement ban came into effect), there have been reports from all over that “Kites” for children carrying advertisements of chewing tobacco are available all over the country. These “Kites” have a specially printed poly sheet which carries the advertisements of chewing tobacco of various brands. As a tactic adopted by the tobacco industry, these sheets are provided free of cost to most of the kite makers for converting them into kites. (The material is different from the usual packaging material) Since for the kite makers there is no cost associated with the material provided so these kites are provide to the market at very economical rates, costing just 50 paisa per kite. This becomes an attraction for children and they buy these kites and thereby get exposed to tobacco product advertisements which Section 5 of the “Cigarette and other tobacco products Act 2003” specifically prohibits.

We are annexing four of such kites, which are available in Chandigarh, Punjab, Haryana and Delhi (Sadar Bazaar is full of them) for your kind perusal. Our investigation has shown that most of these kites for north India originate from Uttar Pradesh (Mostly from the town of Bareilly).

We request you to kindly request the enforcement wing of the central government and the state governments to do all what is required to stop such illegal acts and bring the culprits to book. We also request you to kindly bring the “Steering Committee,” which is supposed to look into advertising violations, into physical existence so as to help prevent all such violations happening all over the country.

Thanking you,

Yours cordially

Hemant Goswami

Chairperson, Burning Brain Society

Encl: Six different Kites carrying advertisements of chewing tobacco.

C/C: Ms. Bhavani Thyagrajan, J.S., Min. of Health & Family Welfare, Gov. of India