CHENNAI: Amidst concerns over the use of tobacco and drugs in school students, civil society organisations have urged the government to conduct an annual survey to collect statistics on children affected by drugs including tobacco in the state.
An action plan should be prepared based on the statistics and implementation should be monitored, the organisations said at the state-level consultation meeting held in Chennai on Wednesday.
The consultation was organised by the Tamil Nadu People’s Forum for Tobacco Control (TNPFTC), Centre for Child Rights and Development, and the Madras School of Social Work.
“We demand an amendment in the Food Safety and Standards (Prohibition and Restriction on Sales) Regulations (2011) to completely and permanently ban all the chewable tobacco products in the state,” they said.
“Banned tobacco products are more prevalent in the state now. This is because the ban was quashed by the high court in January 2023 and came back only in May. In the four months, large quantities of banned tobacco products were stocked in the state,” said Cyril Alexander, convenor of TNPFTC.
In the recently held school management committee meetings, several schools raised concerns about the rise in the use of tobacco products among students and also passed resolutions.