Statment: Bobby Ramakant, Big Tobacco blocks treaty progress toward saving lives

Good afternoon. I am Bobby Ramakant. I am calling in today from Lucknow, India and I represent Asha Parivar.  Asha Parivar is a people`s group focused on empowerment of the poor and on strengthening of democracy in India. Asha Parivar has worked across the region to expose and challenge tobacco industry abuse.
 

The tobacco industry has targeted Southeast Asia as an expansion and growth market for its products. Today, tobacco kills one million people in India each year.

Shortly after the formal adoption of Article 5.3 Guidelines, India's national tobacco control coalition, the Advocacy Forum for Tobacco Control, exposed a conference which claimed to have the support of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the Government of India, and sought to engage the tobacco industry as one of the stakeholders.
 

The coalition formally brought this to the attention of the Health Ministry, which reported lack of any formal consent given to the conference organizers. The ministry officials further acknowledged that association with the tobacco conference would be a violation of the Article 5.3 Guidelines of the treaty. They brought and end to the speculations about the Ministry's involvement in this conference.
 

And while the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in India did make this concerted effort to sever ties with the tobacco industry, recent times have witnessed the Government becoming increasingly susceptible to industry pressure. Tobacco industry interference has directly and indirectly (through its allied agencies) repeatedly sabotaged public health policies in India. In 2008, the Health Ministry revealed before the Central Information Commission that the tobacco industry was pressuring it to relax the tobacco control policies.
 

Very recently in compliance with Article 5.3 of the global tobacco treaty in India, the court intervened stopping the government of India’s involvement in a tobacco industry’s networking meeting in Bangalore, India. The matter is in the court.
 

Over the past years, India has faced major blows with repeated deferment of the implementation of the pictorial health warnings on tobacco products. After at least, seven delays, the weak pictorial warnings were finally implemented on 1st June 2009 in India. Again the implementation of new stronger pictorial warnings from 1st June 2010 was postponed to 1st December 2010, a result of the ongoing lobbying and pressure by the tobacco industry and its allies.
 

Other countries in the region are taking steps to protect their government officials from such industry interference and pressure. For example, the Philippines Department of Health and Civil Service Commission announced a joint memorandum circular that closely follows the Article 5.3 Guidelines. The new policy explicitly limits interactions of government personnel with the tobacco industry, requires transparency in interactions with the tobacco industry, and requires reporting of any interaction or offer of donation from the tobacco industry.
 

This week, in India, at least in two cities of Lucknow and Gorakhpur, civil society organizations are organizing a public launch of the new report documenting tobacco industry interference in implementing the global tobacco treaty. Case studies from India will also be shared.In Thailand, FM Radio 102.5 is producing an exclusive radio programme on Thai examples of industry interference in implementing the global tobacco treaty in the country.
 

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