Nagaland government declares all schools as tobacco-free zone

Dimapur, April 14 (EMN): The Nagaland government has decided to declare all educational institutions both government and private as a tobacco-free zone with effect from May 1, 2023. The government declared all government hospitals, healthcare centres, and health offices including the directorate of Health and Family Welfare as a tobacco-free zone on January 23, 2023.

This was disclosed by the commissioner and secretary of the Health and Family Welfare department, Y Kikheto Sema during the launch of the ‘Tobacco-free School to tobacco-free home campaign’ held at Little Flower Higher Secondary School in Kohima on Friday as the special guest.

Addressing the gathering, Kikheto elaborated on the dangerous effects of tobacco, which is the largest cause of preventable deaths in the world. He informed that 700 new cases of cancer are registered in Nagaland and added that 43% of children between the age of 13 to 15 years are tobacco users. He also mentioned that out of the total 2684 schools in Nagaland, 356 schools are declared tobacco-free, stated a DIPR report.

“The tobacco-free home campaign is historic because this launch is the first in the country and the world, Little Flower School is chosen as the venue because it is an all-girls school and it is one of the best well-known schools in the whole state and the girls are always effective, efficient as an agent of changes and women handle crisis better than men and women are key to sustainable development and quality of life in the family,” he said.

Stressing the objectives of the tobacco-free home campaign, he was of the view that when an educational institution becomes tobacco-free, the students have the required knowledge to create awareness in their homes. He expressed optimism that thousands of homes could be transformed and bring out a huge impact on the overall behaviour of the citizens if every student of tobacco-free schools takes part in the campaign.

He also encouraged Little Flower Higher Secondary School to make the initiatives successful and be a role model for thousands of schools in the state, country, and around the world to follow.

Dr. Chiekroshuyi Tetseo, additional director of Health and Family Welfare, stated that the whole idea of the campaign was to let the children make their parents know about the ill effects of tobacco use.

The report stated that the chief guest gave away tobacco-free home certificates to parents of the students for achieving the criteria of a tobacco-free home under the initiative of the State Tobacco Control Cell, National Tobacco Control Programme.