MiD DAY's initiative to knock out the habit of smoking from the lives of Mumbaikars!

MiD DAY took up the issue to knock out the habit of smoking from the lives of Mumbaikars by running a 3 week long campaign urging Mumbaikars to kick the butt. MiD DAY Smoke Free Mumbai was to encourage people of the city to make Mumbai smoke free for 24 hours on World No Tobacco Day. The campaign was also run in the other cities where MiD DAY functions, i.e. Pune, Bangalore and Delhi.

On 31st May, 2011 ' World No Tobacco Day, a blue ribbon was given along with every MiD DAY to all its readers to participate and encourage others to quit smoking. Over 1,25,000 pledges were received from Mumbaikars and various organizations and celebrities pledged to participate in Smoke Free Mumbai campaign.

As a part of the campaign, 3 day activities were organized to spread the message of Smoke Free Mumbai along with the other modes of communication like Radio, Outdoor, OOH, TV, and ground partner promotions.

On 29th of May, Street Plays were organized at Phoenix Mills for people to know their rights and responsibilities as the citizen of Mumbai. The plays addressed youngsters and the message was to encourage youngsters to quit smoking and get into the habit of leading a healthy life. Free ENT check-ups were also done for high risk groups, i.e. tobacco habitutees, people were screened for precancerous conditions and offered on the spot counseling on Quitting Tobacco and Oral hygiene. Also Nicotine Anonymous ' a support community of people who have quit smoking - was inaugurated by S.K. Bhalla, Chairman, General Service Office of Alcoholics Anonymous (India). This community encourages others to quit smoking by sharing their experiences.

On 30th May, a Children drawing competition was organized at MIG club in Bandra. 200 children including cancer patients had participated in this programme and 3 best drawings were judged and awarded. To motive children, film personalities like Amrita Rao, Jacqueline Fernandes and Shibani Kashyap also visited and spent time with the children. The idea of this event was to inculcate the habit of leading a healthy life in the earlier stages of mankind.

On 31st May, a Police Camp was organized where free ENT screening for 2000 policemen, policewomen and for their family members was organized. This event took place at Naigain Police Headquarters, Dadar (E).

On 31st May, office activation was also done at Lintas Media Group. Vivek Oberoi, being the face of the campaign and also WHO's spokesperson for anit-tobacco, visited Lintas Media Group and spoke to the employees of Lintas about his association with anti-tobacco campaigns. He addressed and encouraged all the employees to spread the message of no smoking and quit the habit for good. Vivek tied ribbons on the arms of the employees of Lintas encouraging them to quit smoking. An interactive session on no smoking was organized between the employees of Lintas Media Group and Vivek Oberoi. The organization also ensured that none of their employees smoked for 24 hours on 31st May.

Speaking on the campaign, Manajit Ghoshal ' MD & CEO of MiD DAY Infomedia Ltd. says - "India has the largest number of oral cancer cases in the world which is due to tobacco. In India, an estimated 120 million people smoke. But the problem is that smoking in India is on rising side unlike Western countries. This alone proves the seriousness of the issue in our country. Thus we at MiD DAY decided that we should not only spread awareness about the hazards of smoking but go one step forward and get citizens to give up smoking for a day. We launched a 15 day campaign urging our readers to keep their city Smoke Free on world no tobacco day. I am truly heartened to see the kind of response this social initiative generated."

Adds Mohit Sainani ' Head Marketing MiD DAY Infomedia Ltd. - "Nearly 17 percent of students in India, aged 15 and under, use some form of tobacco, mainly cigarettes, according to a survey conducted by the World Health Organization. We are rated No.2 country for Smoking Cigarettes amongst top 10 countries. This indicates how deep routed the problem lies in our country. MiD DAY Smoke Free City initiative was just a small step towards getting people to lead a healthy lifestyle. Not smoking for a day is a start and we urge people to Pledge everyday to keep their lives smoke free"

Y. K. Sapru, Chairman & CEO, CPAA, also added saying "Despite all efforts, tobacco companies are taking an aggressive stand world-wide and negating all that is being done against usage of tobacco. Intellectual property in Free Trade Agreement (FTAs) is undermining the right to health in many ways. For example, tobacco companies are using FTAs with intellectual property in investment chapters to sue governments directly for their efforts to bring in measures to protect public health. Currently for example Phillip Morris is using the Switzerland ' Uruguay trade agreement to sue Uruguay for its decision to introduce larger and more graphic health warning on cigarette packs. The Indian government and WHO should wake up to the fact that the convention on Tobacco Control is also under attack in these FTAs. In the process of getting a higher GDP of 8-9%, let us not mortgage the health of our Indian population by making tobacco more easily accessible to our population."

The campaign gets over on 31st May but the thought of smoke free Mumbai continues and MiD DAY will continue to encourage Mumbaikars to stand up for such a cause and liberate Mumbai from the shackles of smoke forever.