Changes in public policies have a drastic and immediate effect on the economic prosperity of a community. Hasty decisions on policy changes cause a multitude of problems to brew on the horizon for a whole nation and its people.
When amendments were made to the Tobacco Control Act of 2005 in 2013, the notable effects were beneficial for the people with due alignment to the government’s goals to reduce the rate of smoking in Bangladesh.
However, the newer amendments made on June 16 of 2022 had opposite effects as the additions were threatening the livelihoods of millions of people in the Bangladesh community by restricting the amount of revenue gathered collectively from the tobacco industry.
There are, in reality, far better ways to curb smoking in the country, and many of those add to the country without taking anything away from its people.
One of the best ways to effectively mitigate smoking is by creating mass awareness.
The 2013 amendment that engaged such mass awareness campaigns reduced the net percentage of smokers in the country by 1 per cent each year and brought down the total percentage of smokers to 34 per cent by 2017.
This incredible success was due to awareness-building exercises that led people to quit smoking or exercise control over this toxic habit of their own free will.
With knowledge of the health problems posed by poisonous chemicals in cigarettes, a large number of smokers were observed to respect the non-smokers’ health and seek out smoking zones rather than smoking in public and putting nearby non-smokers in the way of passively inhaling the nicotine-laden smoke.
All was going well until 2022 when the new draft was proposed with turbulent measures that limit the trading of cigarettes in such a way that directly takes away the livelihood of millions of low-income families who rely on cigarette hawking to fund basic needs for themselves.
These measures come at a time when surging inflation rates, forex volatility, resource crisis along with an impending global recession already have a dire depreciation of income for the country.
Enacting laws to discourage smoking does not have to involve such measures as proposed in the new 2022 amendments that involve banning the sales of single-stick cigarettes, putting strict limitations on cigarette packaging and branding, or putting licensing requirements on street hawkers.
All this, in turn, is going to have a massive backlash on the government as millions of low-income families will be affected and stripped of their livelihoods.
Now is the time to employ a delicate balance of implementing tactics implemented to curb smoking.
The government’s successful initiatives to create awareness against smoking through conducting seminars and campaigns across all areas of Bangladesh with a high percentage of smokers should be resumed in order to bring about a slow but steady improvement in people’s health without causing a drastic blow to the total revenue income of the country.
To this end, local and foreign non-governmental organizations (NGOs) can be utilized to gain traction and boost the impact of these awareness programs.
