Mobilizing community or social groups is one of the key strategy in public health advocacy. IPH alone or in collaboration with various networks/coalition organizes campaigns/activities to mobilize specific social groups on specific public health issues. Such campaigns, apart from raising public awareness, bring in public voice on the concerned public health issues.
Signature Campaign Anti-tobacco Walkathon Painting Competition
Following an initial exploratory and small study by IPH on tobacco use among pre-university students, a large-scale cross sectional study using a random sample of 19 pre-university colleges across the Bangalore city was planned for better and representative assessment.
Various aspects related to tobacco use including, prevalence of tobacco use, social perceptions of tobacco use/user, factors influencing initiation/continuation of tobacco use, implemettaion of relevant policies etc. were studied. This study was carried out under ISEC-SRTT visiting fellowship programme by Institute for Social & Economic Change, Bangalore. Publications from this study are in progress. A research brief was produced summatising the study findings and was distributed among city based pre-university colleges. Study findings were reported in several news reports.
Most studies on youth and tobacco use in India (including Global Youth Tobacco Surveys) focsues on high-school students (grades 8, 9 and 10). In Karnataka, pre-university education (grades 11, 12) is imparted through a seperate governmanet department and often in different settings than high-schools. This phase of life represents a transition of student from relatively more restricted school setting to liberal university setting. In order to understand tobacco use and related factors among pre-university students, IPH carried out an exploratory cross sectional study among 500 students of a purposely selected pre-university college in Bangalore city. Study provided findings on tobacco use prevalenc
e, reasons for (non) use of tobacco by students, awareness on tobacco harms, information sources for such awareness etc.
Study findings were published in the National Medical Journal of India and were subsequently disseminated through mass media reports. For more details, please see relevant publications and news reports.
A signature campaign was launched by IPH to engage with and garner support for a petition demanding withdrawal of Indian Tobacco Board’s sponsorship to Global Tobacco Networking Forum, a tobacco industry event scheduled to be held in Bangalore in October 2010. Signatures were collected from students at various schools/colleges as well as form health professionals at various social events including the national meeting of Advocacy Forum on Tobacco Control (AFTC). Campaign was supported by two AFTC member NGOs (Pasumai Thayyagam and Gramin Shikshan Charity Foundation) from Bengaluru city and other parts of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. In total, campaign led to collection of more than 33,000 signatures. As part of the campaign, an online petition was also launched and disseminated using emails and social media like Facebook and Twitter.
Prevalence of tobacco use among adolescents in India is very high. Despite many epidemiological studies exploring tobacco use among youth, there is no published data on adolescents’ perceptions about smokers in Indian society and its implications on tobacco control.
Article type Research article
Authors : Upendra M Bhojani,Maya A Ellias,Devadasan N
Journal: BMC Public Health
Submission date : 8 April 2011
Acceptance date : 14 July 2011
Publication date : 14 July 2011
Download PdfBhojani U. Using Evidence to inform policy making and implementation: A case of tobacco control in Karnataka, 8th Winter Symposium on ‘Evidence Informed Healthcare’, 11-14 January 2010, Vellore India
