Regional Conference in Bogra: “Tobacco Control: Actions Required”; 17.10.09
Unnayan Shamannay and Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB), Bogra district committee jointly organised a regional conference on the issue of Tobacco control on 17 October 2009. The honorable Member of Parliament, Principal Khadiza Khatun, was the Chief present in the event. Anwar Hossain, Assistant Deputy Commissioner (Education), was the Special Guest in the occasion. Dr. Zulfikar Ali, Research Fellow of Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS) and team leader of PATT project of Unnayan Shamannay, Chinmoy Mutsuddi, the coordinator of PATT project, and Mahfuz Ara Miva, the President of CAB-Bogra, also attended the Conference. At the outset, Mahfuz Ara Miva delivered the welcome speech. She insisted on imposing higher level of taxes on tobacco items to reduce consumption. She also urged government to be more cautious on the issue of implementing the existing law in order to prevent smoking at public places. Later on, Chinmoy Mutsuddi briefly presented on the objectives of PATT along with the significance of tobacco control. Dr. Zulfikar Ali discussed on the issue of health hazards related to tobacco use and the current state of tobacco use in Banlgadesh. Besides these, there are many other discussants in the conference who provided their important suggestions of how to improve our strategies to implement our policies of raising tax in next budgetary plan.
The main objectives of this regional conference are:
 To inform participants about the Policy Advocacy for Tobacco Taxation (PATT) project.
Disseminate research findings on tobacco taxation.
Identify barriers to an increase in tobacco taxes.
Building awareness in grass root levels in support of raising tobacco tax.
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Open Discussion:
Main recommendations from the discussants and participants from the Conference were:
- Proper initiatives should be taken to raise tobacco related bills in the Parliament.
- Activists should insist on closing bidi factories.
- Anti-tobacco workshops should be done in divisional and sub-divisional level.
- Cigarette should not be sold to children, particularly to less than 18 years old.
- License of cigarette sellers should be mandatory.
- Proposed tax in budget 2009-2010 should be re-imposed in the next fiscal year’s budget.
- Chapters on ‘SAY NO TO SMOKING’ in the syllabus of schools and colleges should be included.
- Tax should be increased on tobacco cultivation land.
- Only tax increase would not be sufficient to keep away people from consuming tobacco. For that, we need to build up social awareness programs. We can locate sign-posts of “No Tobacco” in public places, such as in front of schools, colleges, markets, and offices.
- Motivate the youth generation in anti tobacco campaign is necessary.
- Make alternative employment opportunities for bidi workers.
Government should amend the Tobacco Control Act 2005
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