Cigarettes at an arm's length for students

A small tea shop adjacent to Presidency Girls Higher Secondary School on Spur Tank Road, facing chief education officer's office, sells tobacco products, including cigarettes, blatantly violating the Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act, (COTPA) 2003.
A TOI investigation in at least a dozen schools across Egmore, Tondiarpet, Royapuram, Adyar, Perumbakkam, Thirumangalam, and Porur revealed COTPA violations by shopkeepers, some of whom sell the products openly and others on the sly.
P Geetha, who runs a stationery shop opposite T S T Rajah Girls Matriculation Higher Secondary School, redirects customers seeking cigarettes to another shop she secretly owns. When asked if she was aware that she was breaking the law by selling cigarettes near a school, she said, "I don't sell them to students. Also, the sale of cigarettes only happens during evenings and nights (after school hours)…"
Even departmental and stationery shops near schools have cigarettes for sale.
Shopkeepers said they do not sell tobacco to students. In some shops, cigarettes and other tobacco products are hidden from public view.
Activists argue that the issue is not about selling cigarettes or pan to students. "It is about providing easy access to tobacco products. There has to be awareness among teachers and shopkeepers by the education and health departments. Police must ensure adherence," Cyril Alexander, state convenor, Tamil Nadu's People Forum for Tobacco Control, said.
Tobacco is the gateway drug, he said. "Several shops put up advertisements for cigarettes, which is against the law.
Yet, we see no action against them," he added.
An official from the office of chief education officer confirmed that schools must display "no-smoking zone" banners/messages on their walls or around their premises to alert shops. None of the schools that TOI visited had any such warning. Headmaster in-charge of Presidency Girls Higher Secondary School, A Joseph, said steps were being taken to put up such warning messages on the school's compound wall.

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