Burning Brain Society, which keeps the tab on the compliance and enforcement said that despite laxity by the enforcement agencies, voluntary compliance of tobacco control laws remain high at over seventy percent at all times. At the peak of the initiative the compliance was as high as ninety two percent.

“Effective enforcement by the police can always push the compliance level to a higher level. But what is remarkable is that the public has embraced the concept as if they were waiting for it. People complaint even if a single person is seen smoking any where in public. This kind of involvement of the general public is wonderful.” said Hemant Goswami, chairperson of the Society.

“The media has also been supportive to the extent that now anyone smoking even in an open area (not defined as public area) is reported and so the authorities are coaxed to work. Media photographers have been complaining that they have to search out for an hour before they can click a picture of anyone smoking as a supporting visual for the story. This in itself is an evidence of success of the concept.” Goswami adds.

“Not only the city residents, but even the tourists appreciate the smoke-free hotels and restaurants of Chandigarh. Even if there be some amount of enforcement problem with smoking in certain public places but one must not forget that Chandigarh is the only place in the whole country where all restaurants and hotels provide completely smoke-free environment. Having smoke-free policy and environment in each and every educational institute is also not a small thing to celebrate about.” Says APS Shergill, a member of Chandigarh Tobacco Control Cell

Mr. Vivek Atray, Director Tourism of Chandigarh Administration agrees that all has not been rosy and says, “There have been many ups and down and some minor problems, but largely, the experiment has been successful and we can proudly say that Chandigarh has once again proved to be a pioneer in yet another public welfare initiative. It will take a couple of year for any other city in India to even match the levels where we are at present. The tourism industry is bound to gain a lot by this initiative.”

“The problematic area of the smoke-free initiative remains the lack of active enforcement by the Police, laid out casual approach of the Health department and the non-removal of road side tobacco vendors by the Muncipal Corporation,” informs Jagdish Singh Sarpal of CTCC

Hemant Goswami who recently visited London to assess and compare the level of compliance and adherence to smoke-free laws says, “Chandigarh is better than London on all fronts when it comes to protecting people from toxic tobacco smoke and adhering to smoke-free laws. The only low side in Chandigarh is enforcement by police otherwise we are better than London in all respects.”

The civil society and members of Chandigarh Tobacco Control Cell have kept the heat on and in the month of July Burning Brain Society filed nearly five hundred complaints to make sure that the tobacco control legislation is adhered to.

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Currently tobacco kills nearly 5.4 million people per annum worldwide, out of which every fifth person is an Indian. According to WHO, Tobacco caused 100 million deaths in the 20th century. If current trends continue, there could be up to one billion deaths (Equivalent to current population of India) in the 21st century. Tobacco remains the biggest cause of heart attacks and cancer. What is more unfortunate is that nearly eighty percent of tobacco-related deaths will occur in the developing countries like India within a few decades. The shift of tobacco from developed to developing countries is caused by a global tobacco industry marketing strategy that targets young people and adults in developing countries.

BBS chairperson Hemant Goswami informed that the “Annual Tobacco Control Warrior Awards” shall be given in eight categories every year. The recipients would be selected from India by way of selection, invitation and by nomination. The categories in which the annual awards would be given are;

Best Enforcement Activity (TWO):- To be given to an individual police official and/or enforcement official for best performance in enforcing the law. Another to be given to a police station/department with maximum prosecution under tobacco control legislation every year.

Best Mass Media Effort (FIVE):- Journalist, one each from English, Hindi and vernacular Media; and two from electronic media for their effort to dispel the myths and misinformation campaign of the tobacco industry and facilitate the scientific evidence and facts to reach the masses.

Best Civil Society Efforts (TWO):- One for a Civil Society Organisation (NGO) working on tobacco control and another for a community/resident welfare organisation.

Tobacco Control Bravery Award (TWO):- Any individual who has challenged the might of the industry in any way and produced concrete results. One each for a male and female.

Best State Government Initiative (ONE):- The State Government doing best work to protect people from secondary smoke and enforcing smoke-free legislation.

Best District/City Initiative (ONE):- A District/City doing the best work in tobacco control and in enforcing the tobacco control legislation.

Best Educational Institute Initiative (ONE):- An educational institute and/or educational board/University which have undertaken tobacco control activities producing physical results.

Best Business House (ONE):- To be given to a corporate/business establishment which protects its employees from any form of tobacco exposure, has made the work-place smoke-free and initiated efforts to make all of its employees and their families tobacco-free

“At least two lakh workers die every year due to exposure to second-hand smoke (smoke from other people’s cigarette/beedi) at work. An estimated seven hundred million children, or almost half of the world's children, breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke, particularly at home which causes many serious diseases in children,” informed Devender.

Talking about the necessity to give these awards to persons working on tobacco control, Hemant said, “People don’t realize, but the tobacco epidemic which kills nearly ten lakh people every year in India is man-made and entirely preventable. On an average, one death every six seconds is caused due to tobacco use. If we put in a little bit of efforts, tobacco can be de-glamorised and millions of lives can be saved. So the good work of all those who are producing results in tobacco control despite the interference of the tobacco industry and against all the odds must be recognised publicly.”

Devender Madan, Secretary-General of Burning Brain Society informed that 2008 awards would be given with the support of “Tobacco-Free World Foundation” but over the years BBS would be developing an independent corpus for these annual awards.

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For further information, please contact: - Burning Brain Society/ Mr. Hemant Goswami at +91-172-5165555, +91-9417868044 E-Mail:-info@burningbrain.org

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