Following the ban on gutka, colleges across the city have started campaigns to encourage students and the public to get rid of the addiction to tobacco products like cigarettes and paan masalas.
Speaking about their Thuk-Na (spit not) and Phuknike-Ab bus (smoker now enough) campaigns Alex Varghese, a student from Wilson College said, “The Thuk-Na campaign is aimed at making spitters feel guilty about their act. Here, we go around the city and try to catch spitters red-handed,” Varghese said. The Thuk-Na campaign has also included heritage structures to highlight the damage caused to these structures due to spitting and smoking.
Students from RD National College have been more direct, and have titled their anti-spitting and smoking campaign Tere Baap Ka Nahi (not your father’s property) to stop youngsters and the general masses from destroying the heritage walls by spitting and smoking near the murals.
The anti-smoking and chewing tobacco campaign by students from KJ Somaiya College also has a similar aim. “It is a good opportunity for non-tobacco chewing and non-smoking people to coerce the government to implement stricter rules on smoking and chewing other tobacco products,” said a student from Somaiya College.
Speaking about the campaign, Dilip Karande, management council member, University of Mumbai said, “It is very heartening to see youngsters take up social causes, which they could very easily have become victims of.”