On Monday morning, farmers agitating outside at the seventh session of the Conference of Parties to World Health Organisation’s Framework Convention of Tobacco Control at Noida were detained by police. The farmers were peacefully protesting being denied entry into the convention.
While encouraging governments to promote better public health by curbing tobacco production, the WHO says it wants to work with tobacco farmers whose livelihoods will be affected. But organisers of the international convention refused to allow tobacco farmers to participate in proceedings. The farmers who came together under the umbrella of the Federation of All India Farmer Associations and applied for the status of observers at the conference.
According to the rules of the convention, only organisations whose “aims and activities are in conformity with the spirit, purpose and principles of the Convention” were allowed to apply to observe proceedings. The convention, as the first point in its agenda, rejected 12 such applications, including those from the All India Bidi Industry Federation.
The WHO's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control is a treaty signed by member nations that aims to tackle the global tobacco epidemic of diseases. The seventh meeting is between November 7 to November 12. The member countries affirm their commitment to various issues related to tobacco including tobacco taxation, tobacco advertising, illicit trade among others.
“We pledge to fight against the non-transparent machinery of WHO FCTC," the industry federation said. "We appeal to the policy makers to investigate the hidden agenda of global organisations that, under the garb of development and welfare, are silently working towards destroying local markets and livelihoods in developing economies, which is against their own guiding principles.”
However, WHO representatives clarified that they are pro-farmer and want them to have better livelihoods. “Observer status was not allowed because there was a conflict of interest with the industry,” said Vera Luiza da Costa e Silva, head of the convention secretariat. Arun Panda, additional secretary at the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said that a delegation from the ministry would go and discuss issues with the farmers.
Manipulated by big tobacco?
The tobacco industry, Silva alleged, uses and manipulates tobacco farmers to make their case. “'Do not regulate. The farmers will lose their livelihood,' the industry always says. These associations are made by the industry. Each time the industry tries to dilute or corrupt the legislations,” she said, adding that the industry only wants to keep farmers confined to roles beneficial to tobacco companies.
These roles are often harmful to the farmers themselves.
People who work with tobacco, especially children who roll bidis, could develop green tobacco sickness, a type of nicotine poisoning that occurs while handling tobacco plants. “The farmers and the people handling tobacco leaves suffer acute tobacco toxicity," said Dr Pankaj Chaturvedi, head and neck surgeon, Tata Memorial Hospital, Mumbai. "They absorb tobacco through their skin. We have to look for alternative livelihoods for them.”
Workers are especially at high risk of developing this illness when their clothing becomes saturated with tobacco that is wet from rain or morning dew or perspiration. The symptoms could include nausea, vomiting, dizziness, headaches, having difficulty sleeping or eating, among others.
Phasing out tobacco farming
Delegates from the health ministry said that they have been working with other ministries to curb tobacco production. On March 9, the Tobacco Board, which regulates the production of Flue Cured Virginia Tobacco with which cigarettes are made, decided to reduce the limit on tobacco production across India. The production will be cut “in a gradual and consistent manner so that the interests of the farmers are not affected in the short term while achieving significant reduction in production in the long term”, the board newsletter states.
In Karnataka, where farmers export tobacco to manufacturers in Brazil, China and Zimbabwe, the tobacco board has agreed to allow a tobacco crop size of 95 million kgs, which is 5% less than the 100 million kgs demanded by farmers.
On May 3, the Ministry of Agriculture too approved a pilot project of crop diversification programme in 10 states including Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The project is aimed to help farmers replace the existing tobacco crop.
“The point is the farmers’ livelihoods should not be hurt,” said Panda.
