Legend Frees Village From Smoking
Residents of Shankarpura -- a village in India's Haryana state follow folk tradition, shun smoking. Satyawan Verma tells us about his neighbouring village Shankarpura in Haryana where no ban is needed to keep people away from smoking. Nobody in the village has ever fallen sick of tobacco addiction either. This is because for centuries villagers here have considered smoking a sin and have stayed away from that thanks to a local legend which says the village would prosper only if stayed off smoking. Every year, 90 thousand people die in India from smoking-related diseases, including lung cancer. According to studies, more than 50 percent of these tobacco-related deaths occur among illiterate men or women, and 80 percent of those people reside in rural India. There is a nationwide ban on smoking in public places. The ban came in force in April'2008, but the nature of ban itself gives room for people to continue smoking in privacy. As a result there are still approximately 120 million smokers in India, about 37 percent of all men and 5 percent of all women between the ages of 30 and 69. Satyawan, a non-smoker, who headed a village council/Panchayat for five years, says that in villages across Haryana, smoking is still done by the community members almost like a ritual. When panchayats meet, or elders of the village get together to discuss a community issue, the smoke as though it is a part of a tradition. But the tradition that Shankarpura villagers follow is one that is ...
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