As we observe World No-Tobacco Day on May 31, I cannot help but notice the theme for this year that took a U-turn from its predictable predecessors. Someone might have seen the inefficacy of trying to convince the world to quit tobacco for a healthy and better life; someone might have seen the statistics of the tobacco related illness and death toll that have not gone down even a bit but rather vice versa.
Enough with people and their health, the World Health Organisation (WHO) this time exhorts the world to abstain from tobacco for it is a threat to the planet. Quit for the sake of Mother Nature. For a change and along the same lines, I will not write about how tobacco kills, how many diseases are linked to it, or how many lives per day tobacco takes or how intense the awareness programmes should be.
I believe that if we can read this we probably know all that is to know about tobacco and the dooms it brings. Let me rather take you to a different ride into this social evil and the intangible system under which it thrives, projecting society as the first teacher. Let me usher you from the mainstream concept of tobacco to the more local context yet of greater pitfall.
In West Khasi Hills of Meghalaya, tobacco apparently has a different outlook and no statistical data will give us the true picture of this menace. Let us shift our attention to that omnipresent one-inch piece smeared with red saliva on one end and a charred burnt on the other. Yes, the locally infamous ‘Makyllaiñ’ has many aspects – from psychological to social, it plays a subtle role in our society and we cannot remain oblivious to the fact that it has now become a hard nut to crack.
Tobacco camouflaged as ‘Makyllaiñ’ in our society is warmly welcome both literally and metaphorically. Anti-tobacco laws seem to skipped this part of the State as we see people starting their conversation with one, beginning and ending their tea time chit chat with one, boarding a cab with one, killing their time with one; regardless of whether it is a public place or not, a smoking zone or not; the smoke from a man’s mouth is visually eternal.
The unwritten and unspoken law of the society makes tobacco a guest who overstays his welcome. The universal nature of its consumption has silenced the voice of those who want a breath of untainted oxygen. What have we done thus far? Yes, there are legislated laws to tackle this menace but are they really implemented? We have imposed anti-tobacco catchphrase and its fatal effects on almost every platform – from disturbing images on a cigarette packet to repulsive visuals on the television set – and yet we do not see a substantial impact on the people. Our makyllain is an alien to both the above. So I ask ‘Are we being silenced or are we silent on this matter?’
A child in every locality of our district is openly exposed to tobacco use as he watches his elders around him puff their way into everything and everywhere. At the ages between 7 to 14, the environment around has an immense impact on the children. Whatever they see influences their lifestyle decision. For a child, the desire to be distinctively superior to his peers prompts him into tobacco use.
Therefore, with the level of tobacco users that exist here in our district, there is a very high probability that three out of ten children will fall into the snare merely because everyone around them is doing it. And this trend prevalent in the social arena creeps into the other side of the same coin-the educational institution. Along with his peers the child will explore his curiosity.
To curtail the use of tobacco in school premises is to curtail the extensive use of the same in the society. The society he lives in and the school he attends are the two pillars that influence his every aspect, be it mental, intellectual, physical or psychological. In addition, the search for a status to be called a ‘Man’ is somehow socially judged by his unconscious action of rolling the ‘Makyllaiñ’ and releasing smoke from mouth and nose while talking of the news of the day. Psychologically, a child would grow up to believe that ‘Makyllaiñ’ makes a man ‘The Man’. Can we blame him?
In the past few weeks we have witnessed school children taking the streets with their anti tobacco slogans as part of the effort to put a lid on this menace. Coming to the educational institution, there cannot be one tobacco free institution if the aforementioned practices and habits in society keep circling around a child’s life. The theory of mimesis would work itself and children will find ways and means to get their hands on tobacco to satiate their curiosity. And before they know of its disutility, it would be too late and tobacco would substitute their routine desire for candy and snacks.
We need a different outlook on tobacco in our society, a rather stringent strategy to reduce its unprecedented increase. We need the government to harness the power vested in them and implement the COTPA Act, 2003 to curtail the use of ‘Makyllaiñ’ in particular and tobacco in general.
(The writer is a resident of Nongstoin, West Khasi Hills).
