Anti-tobacco drive: Kashish Ki Koshish goes national

JAIPUR: A 12-year-old

Hanumangarh

’s girl’s emotional letter to her father appealing him to quit

tobacco

is all set to become a national campaign against the unhealthy habit.

The letter had inspired the state campaign, Kashish Ki Koshish, against tobacco use earlier this year.

With support from the country office of World Health Organisation (WHO), the Centre will organise a letter writing competition in all schools to raise awareness regarding harmful effects of tobacco use. The competition will require students to write letters to their parents/relatives/neighbours who use tobacco, urging them to quit the habit.

In February, the Hanumangarh girl, Kashish, had written an emotional appeal to her father asking him to quit tobacco. This has inspired the Centre to take the initiative of holding a letter writing competition across the country to spread awareness against tobacco use.

“We launched the campaign of letter writing in schools of the state after being inspired by Kashish’s letter to her father. Now, our campaign will be replicated in schools all over the country,” said Dr S N Dholpuria, state nodal officer, tobacco control.

Kashish, who turned 13 three days ago, had written a letter to her father, urging him to quit his habit of chewing tobacco. When he read the letter, he quit using tobacco.

“It was an emotional appeal. When I read it, I took pledge not to consume chewing tobacco any more. At that time, I used to consume at least 10-12 pouches of tobacco costing Rs 70-80 per day. Now, I have stopped it,” Kashish’s father Ashok Datt, who owns a goods autorickshaw, said.

In the letter to her father, Kashish had written thus: “Mujhe aisa lagta hai jab main apke sapne pure kar rahi hongi, tab aap mere sath nahin honge. Mujhe pata hai, jo log cigarette peete hain tobacco khate hai, woh bahut jaldi mar jate hain (I feel papa that when I would be fulfilling your dreams, you won't be with me. I know that those who smoke cigarettes and consume tobacco die early)”.

“I love you papa very much. I know you also love me equally. Please quit tobacco. Take my pledge,” she had further written.

The health department officials came to know about the letter and ran a campaign in Hanumangarh district called ‘Kashish Ki Koshish’.

“If Kashish can do it, why not us? This is the theme of the campaign. She is now the brand ambassador of the National Tobacco Control Programme (NTCP) of the district,” Dr Suresh Chaudhary,

NTCP

(Hanumangarh) nodal officer, said.

Besides using Kashish’s letter as an inspiration, a letter writing campaign was also launched in the district on the harmful effects of tobacco. This has now been taken up by the Centre.

“This letter writing campaign was shared with WHO and government officials. They have decided to replicate it in all states. Through this campaign, we have been reaching out to all corners of the state to spread awareness and save the lives of innocent people who consume these deadly products without knowing its future implications,”

Narendra Singh

, state consultant, NTCP, said.

The Centre has now written to all states asking them to organise letter writing competition for students in two categories—Class V-VII and Class VIII-XII—till August.

The health department too wrote to chief medical health officers of all districts on July 17 to hold inter-school letter writing competition on the harmful effects of tobacco.