To make Youth as healthy, keep them Tobacco Free

Out of total population, about 40 million people are youth those will lead the nation in the coming days. The Tobacco Industries doing various tactics to trap these youth population into cigarette addiction. Starting through cigarette addiction, many of them addicted with drugs. So youth should be protected from smoking and tobacco addiction. To ensure the buildup the healthy nation in future, to make the country tobacco free by 2040 as the vision made by the Honorable Prime Minister and to build the smart Bangladesh, we should keep young generation away from tobacco and drugs addiction.

Speakers expressed their opinion in a discussion meeting jointly organized by Ministry of Youth and Sports & Madak o Nesha Nirodh Sangstha (MANAS) on 27^th April, 2023 afternoon held in the BIRDEM auditorium. This meeting was titled as “The role of the Ministry of Youth and Sports towards making the tobacco-free Bangladesh as announced by the Honorable Prime Minister”.

Dr. Mohiuddin Ahmed, the Secretary of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, was the Chief Guest. Mr. Hossain Ali Khondoker, Coordinator of National Tobacco Control Cell (NTCC) and Additional Secretary of Health Service Division, Mr. Habibul Bashar Sumon, selector of Bangladesh National Cricket Team and former Captain were the special guests. The Discussion Meeting was chaired by Heroic Freedom Fither Professor Dr. Arupratan Chowdhury, Founder and President of Madak o Nesha Nirodh Sangstha (MANAS). The program started with welcome speech of popular music artist Ferdous Wahid who is also the General Secretary of MANAS and key speech was presented by Ad. Syed Mahbubul Alam, the UNION’s technical advisor.

The chief guest emphasized on the announcement of the honorable Prime Minister and said that various ministries and divisions of the government have a role to make the country tobacco-free. He also focused on the Ministry of Youth and Sports & subordinate organizations to play an active role in this regard. In particular, steps will be taken to make the offices of subordinate organizations, stadiums and sports events smoke-free and to include tobacco and drug control issues in the training of various training institutions including the Department of Youth Development. MANAS founder president heroic freedom fighter Professor Dr. Aruparatan Chowdhury said that the youth should be kept away from tobacco and drugs in order to build a developed, prosperous and smart Bangladesh under the leadership of the Honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Smoking is the gateway to drugs addiction. Therefore, if smoking and tobacco are controlled, it will be possible to make the country free from drug’s addiction. According to the announcement of the Honorable Prime Minister, all ministries and divisions of the government, including the Ministry of Youth and Sports should come forward in making the country tobacco and drug’s free.

Mr. Hossain Ali Khandakar, the Coordinator of NTCC stated that since the majority of the country is the youth community, those are highly influenced by the Sport Stars, we need to keep all sport personals free from tobacco. Therefore, it is necessary to keep all events related to sports and youth should be tobacco-free.

Mr. Habibul Bashar Suman, the former Captain of Bangladesh National Cricket team shared his experience. Without mentioning the names, Mr. Suman shared that how several of his talented co-players destroyed their career due to smoking and gradually drugs addiction. He said many promising youngsters have been lost from the sports world only due to drug addiction. He also said that almost all of them entered the drug’s addiction through smoking. Therefore, if the country will be tobacco free, the sports world will also be benefitted.

Ad. Syed Mahbubul Alam articulated the multi-dimensional damage of tobacco. He said that due to constitutional, international and moral reasons and to protect public health, tobacco control should be given high priority. With this aim, it is urgent to ban smoking zone from all public places and transports, ban all sorts of e-cigarettes and ban the sale of single-stick cigarettes. It also necessary to ensure tobacco selling shops under license so that everyone should come under the law.

The Discussion Meeting was moderated by Ms. Umme Jannat, Project Coordinator, MANAS. Other valuable attendees from Ministry of Youth and Sports, Directorate of Youth Development, Directorate of Sports, National Sports Council, BKSP, Sheikh Hasina National Institute of Youth Development, Deputy Commissioner’s Office, Dhaka and Civil Surgeon’s Office, Dhaka and other Officials from anti-tobacco organizations made the program a success.