The Enforcement of India's Tobacco Control Legislation in the State of Haryana: A Case Study

Abstract

(COTPA) to counter the growing societal and health burdens of tobacco in India. The major provisions (Sections 4-7) of COTPA mandate the display of pictorial health warnings on all tobacco product packets and strictly prohibit: smoking in public places, direct and indirect forms of tobacco advertisements, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products, sale of tobacco products to a minor, and sale within 100 yards of any educational institution. However, India continues to have a high prevalence of tobacco consumption and the provisions of COTPA are routinely flouted. The purpose of the study is to analyze the trends in and the prevalence of COTPA violations in a sample test site (Haryana) to develop informed and practical tobacco control policy recommendations. Violations in five districts of the State of Haryana were observed and recorded. The data overwhelmingly show that the most fundamental provisions (Sections 4-7) of COTPA were frequently violated in each of the five districts. All districts had a high rate of noncompliance, with Sites having at least one violation of Sections 4-7 of COTPA, with rates fluctuating between nearly 70 and 90 percent. Such violations however, were unequally distributed between Sections 4-7 within the five districts with some districts having a higher frequency of Section 4 violations (Panipat and Jhajjar) and other districts with higher violation frequency of Section 5 (Mewat and Kurukshetra). However, all five districts had relatively low numbers of Section 7 violations (i.e., the required display of pictorial health warnings on all tobacco products). The study highlights the challenges of the tobacco control policy in India including: engagement of state and district level enforcement officials for effective enforcement of existing legislation, encouragement for civil society to partner and complement governmental efforts in monitoring progress and reporting violations of COTPA, and the need for supply-level controls on tobacco (e.g., pictorial health warnings and increased taxation) to reduce tobacco consumption.

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