Pilot Project to Help Students Quit Tobacco
The Jharkhand school education and literacy department has decided to implement a pilot project in some schools to make students give up tobacco use for good.
Who
- Director secondary education and state nodal officer (tobacco control programme) – Sunil Kumar.
What
- A pilot project in some schools to make students give up tobacco use.
When
- Launched in Ranchi on 23rd September 2022.
Where
- Ten schools, including five government and five private institutions, each in Ranchi, Bokaro, Dhanbad, and East-Singhbhum districts.
Why
- This was decided following the publication of Global Youth Tobacco Survey (GYTS) 2021 report which says that 8.5 percent of juveniles of age group of 13 to 15 consume tobacco in different forms across the country while in Jharkhand 5.1 percent of juveniles of this group consume the same.
How
- The government has decided to implement Tobacco Free Educational Institutions (ToFEI) guidelines in government and private schools under the Tobacco Control Programme, he said.
- As part of the programme, ‘tobacco-free education institution’ signage will be displayed at the entrance or boundary wall of the institutions. ‘Tobacco-free area’ inside the school premises.
- Posters on the harmful effects of tobacco will be exhibited. The institutions will have to organise sensitisation, orientation, or capacity building workshop under the tobacco control programme.
- Shops selling tobacco products within 100 yards of the educational institutions will be removed.