Children puff out smoke rings: They think it's cool

NEW DELHI: Archit Ahluwalia smokes at least two cigarettes a day. Sounds like he has the habit firmly under control, doesn’t it? Not really if you know Archit is only 13 years old and studies in class VI in a west Delhi school. Worse, he says there are boys in his class who are more prolific smokers.
In another prestigious Delhi school, the principal did a random check of students’ bags some days back.Her worst fears were confirmed: She found a fair sprinkling of gutkha and cigarette packs, recounts Monika Arora of Hriday-Shan, a Delhi-based NGO that works closely with schools on anti-tobacco awareness programmes.
Time for parents of young children to hear the alarm bells? It sure is. A study by Hriday-Shan in 50 New Delhi schools, covering nearly 2,000 children in Standards 8-10 (ages 13-15), last year revealed that 5 per cent of the students used tobacco, 1 per cent smoked cigarettes and 8.3 per cent wanted to initiate smoking a year later. The schools ranged from the most prestigious to the municipality-run.
Worse, tobacco is increasingly being perceived as cool: 22 per cent thought boys who smoked or chewed tobacco had more friends; 10.3 per cent had similar perceptions about girls who used tobacco. And thanks to the lifestyle advertising that tobacco has always associated itself with, nearly 27 per cent thought boys and 15.4 per cent thought girls who smoked/chewed tobacco looked more attractive.
Has the age for children starting on tobacco come down in recent years? Definitely, says Mira Aghi, a UN consultant. ‘‘While the age of initiation is almost always below 18, the age of experimentation can be as less as 10 now,’’ she says. More alarming, a growing number of non-smoking children keep cigarette packets in their pockets, to be a part of the happening crowd. Addiction is just a whiff away.
In fact, Monika Arora of Hriday-Shan says the poorer children, while mostly addicted to the cheaper chewing tobacco, are at great pains to impress upon the fact that they have tried all cigarette brands. Those in private schools, of course, do not go in for the ‘‘downmarket’’ gutkha or chewing tobacco, but prefer to smoke cigarettes instead.
The smoking push comes from all the traditional reasons: Easy availability of tobacco products, smoking parents, lack of information on harms of tobacco and easy money. And then there are the reasons that the anti-tobacco lobby has recently been most vocal about: Easy availability near schools, chewing tobacco being available in highly affordable packs, tobacco advertising and the role of cigarettes in movies. Says Aghi: ‘‘The poorer children are hugely influenced by movie heroes. So their first purchases are a comb, to imitate the hair-style, and cigarettes.’’
Today’s children have many more role models to pick from: Shah Rukh Khan, Sanjay Dutt and Ajay Devgan to mention a few. And the results are there for all to see.