The Centre has asked the states to mark a 100-yard circle around schools, colleges and universities and ensure that no tobacco products are sold within it.

A letter from the Centre this week told the states to do it by “either painting a red line on the road or fixing boards mentioning ‘Tobacco Free Zone’”.

Social activists said the initiative’s success would depend on political will. They underlined that a 2003 law already banned the sale of tobacco products within 100 yards of educational institutions, but it had been poorly enforced.

The Centre’s letter cited a global school survey by the World Health Organisation in 2022 that found that 3.7 per cent of the student respondents had smoked a cigarette on at least one day in the 30 days leading to the survey.

School authorities welcomed the government directive but said that building student awareness was the key.

Srinivasan Sriram, principal of The Mann School in New Delhi, said the school had been doing its bit to try and see that the law was followed.

“The shops nearby are warned by the school authorities regularly about the
sale of tobacco products,” Sriram said.

“(But) this is not very effective. Students can always procure the item from a shop in the market. Sensitising the children will work better and that is what we are doing now.”

Social activist Ashok Rao said that during Ambumani Ramadoss’s tenure as Union health minister between 2004 and 2009, the Centre had prodded the states to implement the 2003 law.

But, he said, the law has not been enforced properly yet in the face of apathy from the police and the administration.

“The government needs to find out the lacunas in the implementation of the 2003 law. Mere letters and directives will not help unless a proper review and corrective actions are undertaken,” Rao said.

The directive to the states came in the form of a joint letter from school education and literacy secretary Sanjay Kumar, higher education secretary Vineet Joshi, and health and family welfare secretary Punya Salila Srivastava.

It was sent to the chief secretaries and education secretaries of all the states, and the vice-chancellors of all central and state universities.

“State/ UT law enforcement departments as well as local self-government representatives be involved in awareness promotion and sensitisation activities conducted at schools and colleges/ universities, so as to enable the heads of educational institutions in implementing ToFEI (Tobacco Free Educational Institutions) guidelines, which calls for marking of 100 yards area from the outer limit of boundary wall/ fence of the educational institute with either painting a red line on the road or fixing boards mentioning ‘Tobacco Free Zone’ and shops within 100 yards of the educational institutes shall not sell any kind of tobacco, intoxicating or substance abuse products,” it said.