MANGALURU: Paduperar village at Paduperar gram panchayat in Mangaluru taluk of Dakshina Kannada district has been declared a tobacco-free village under the tobacco-free initiative of the district health department.
District Tobacco Control officer Dr Naveen Chandra Kulal told the TNIE that Paduperar is the first village in the district to receive the recognition by completely banning sale of tobacco products.
Paduperar village is situated about 2 kilometres away from Bajpe on the outskirts of Mangaluru and has a population of around 2225 families according to the local administration. The local authorities interacted with the villagers and shopkeepers to stay away from the tobacco products including selling beedis, cigarettes, pan masala. The panchayath team also visited anganwadis and schools, creating awareness drives in this regard.
Paduperar has 12 shops which were earlier selling these tobacco products. "For the past one year I have been striving hard to make the village tobacco free. I along with the health officials visited these shops and interacted with the villagers. With the support of the district district tobacco control cell, we conducted a meeting of the panchayath members, villagers, organisations, including Women Self Help Groups and youth forums and who all mutually decided to stop the sale of tobacco products in Paduperar village. We made the people and shopkeepers aware of the ill-effects of consumption of tobacco products. We managed to achieve the feat in August this year," said Uggappa Moolya, Panchayath Development Officer(PDO) of the gram panchayath who retired a few days ago.
He was also a recipient of Gandhi Grama Puraskar for his contribution for the development of rural areas. Awareness was also created among the beedi rolling women to ensure there is no consumption of beedis in the village.
The Paduperar village scored 129 out of 150 points, as per the tobacco-control assessment guidelines issued by the state government which is valid for a year. The health department has now put up a board in front of the Paduperar gram panchayath declaring it as the tobacco free village.
Dr Naveen Chandra further said that collective participation of the community is required to make any area tobacco-free. "We have submitted a report in this regard to the state government which is expected to issue a certificate to the village officially declaring it as tobacco-free. There is increased awareness on ill-effects of tobacco products and more than 150 villages across the states are becoming tobacco free. We will strive hard to make more villages in Dakshina Kannada tobacco-free in the upcoming days," he said.