Mumbai, India - students campaign to spread word on the dangers of tobacco products..

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January 1, 2011 - Scores of students participated in a campaign to spread awareness about the ill effects of smoking and tobacco products in Mumbai. Salaam Bombay, a Mumbai-based Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), organized the campaign.

Carrying banners and placards on the ill effects of smoking and tobacco products, students marched down the main roads emphasising the need to take effective measures against this menace.

"Tobacco is very harmful for us. This harms the children who are growing up. We want to go ahead with a good and useful lesson and a person reduces five minutes of his life after consuming a cigarette," said Karan Yadav, a student.

Students, later burnt effigies of tobacco products and Lady Nictoine.

The organiser of the campaign said if the children and youngsters are kept away from tobacco, they would be away from it for their entire life. "We believe in tobacco control. If we keep the children away when they are young, then probably they will not take the tobacco later on in life," said Devika Chadda, Programme Director, Salaam Bombay.

We are doing this not through awareness alone but with advocacy, through life skill development, personality development of the child so that they are well equipped to handle life in the future," she added.

India makes critical decision on education that will help convince children not to use tobacco. The government on Thursday, April 1st brought into force a new law that makes education free and compulsory for every child from age 6 to 14—the latest government initiative aimed at harnessing the economic potential of its young population. About a third of India's 1.2 billion people are under the age of 14, one of the highest ratios in the world. (Joining hands in the interest of children, Kapil Sibal, The Hindu, 1/31/2010)

Reference: Mumbai students spread mass awareness on ill effects of tobacco by Susheel Parikh (ANI), Sify news, 12/31/2010.

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