Farmers protest against tobacco packaging directive

Farmers body FAIFA today protested against Health Ministry's directive on graphic pictorial warnings on cigarette packs.
Representatives of Federation of All India Farmer Associations (FAIFA), a body of farmers associations from South, West and North India engaged in cultivation of cash crops, today staged protest at Jantar Mantar here and demanded immediate government intervention.
"Illegal and contraband cigarettes do not carry any mandated health warnings, thereby creating an impression that such products are safer over legal, regulation-abiding domestic products. This along with high taxes on legal cigarettes has led to quantum growth of illegal tobacco and cigarettes," FAIFA said in a statement.

A Health Ministry directive on tobacco packaging mandates a revision in the existing warning size to 85 per cent on both sides of the pack. The directive will come into effect from April 1 this year.
The farmers fear that the larger graphic health warnings, if implemented, will further lead to increased growth of illegal and smuggled cigarettes in India, thereby affecting their livelihoods, it added.
The association also claimed that none of the other top ten tobacco growing countries in the world has adopted such an extreme position on graphic health warnings.