Women kick the butt harder

Delhi registers negligible count of female offenders taking a puff in public

Delhi registers negligible count of female offenders taking a puff in public

This news comes like a breath of fresh air. If Delhi government's health department officials are to be believed, city women prefer not to light up in public places.

The data compiled by the department indicates that while hundreds of men were found smoking in public places and thus prosecuted by the health department mobile teams, the number of female smokers was almost
negligible.

Don't light it, burn it: Cancer survivors burn a cigarette in effigy to
celebrate Dussehra on World No Tobacco Day on Monday in New Delhi's
Press Club. pic/Rajeev Tyagi

There are nearly four lakh female smokers in the city as per a government survey of 2007.
Since October 2008, whenu00a0 smoking in public places was banned in Delhi only 49 women have been found smoking in public places in the city and thus prosecuted by health department officials.
The highest number of woman prosecuted in a single month was 11 in March 2010 while the number of male smokers fined was 1996 in the same month, according tou00a0 data from the health department.

Following a complete ban on smoking in public places, the city government has constituted eight mobile teams comprising health department officials who raid public places on a day to day basis.
Apart from this the city government has 600 designated officials in different departments to monitor ban on smoking in office premises.

1.9 per cent of women are active smokers in Delhi as per national family health survey of 2006-07 of the central government's health ministry. 40 per cent of males use tobacco in one form or the other, the same survey reveals.

Sheila pledges Smoke-free Games

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday resolved to make Delhi "a smoke-free city" before the commencement of the Commonwealth Games.
Speaking at a function organised to mark World No Tobacco Day, she said the government will soon launch an awareness drive to educate people about the ill-effects of smoking.
Officials said the awareness programme will be first launched in some select areas and later expanded across the city.
"Unlike other cities of India, in Delhi we are adopting a global formula for making the city smoke free. We have norms in place and there is strict enforcement not only by police but also by health department teams. Merely now an announcement is needed to declare the city smoke free," said an official associated with the project.u00a0
A website, https://www.smokefreedelhi.org/ was also launched by Dikshit for extending help to people who want to quit smoking. She said about 1.5 million people die every year globally because of tobacco use.

Apart from raiding public places on receiving complaints, the teams also visit localities to check the effectiveness of the ban.

97153 public places have been raided, 18957 persons have been fined for smoking in public, 1495 tobacco vendors have been penalised by the government and a sum of Rs. 1675240 has been realised from violators since October 2008.u00a0

Month	Male	Female
January 2010	876	2
February 2010	1187	3
March 2010	1196	1
April 2010	800	2