About NGO:

In India, easy availability of tobacco and social sanction have made tobacco products a problem of epidemic proportion amongst children especially in the lower economic strata. Every 3 secs a child tries tobacco for the first time. 5 million Indian children are said to be addicted to tobacco.

Salaam Bombay Foundation, an NGO, was established in 2002 with the vision to build skills to personally and economically empower children so that they may lead tobacco free lives.

SBF adopts a holistic approach in designing its projects, with an understanding that tobacco addiction is a result of low self-esteem, lack of refusal skills and the inability to deal with peer pressure, further exaggerated by difficult living conditions. Programmes are focused on addressing these issues. SBF is present in 147 government schools and has reached out to over 5 lakh children. The rural outreach programme has covered 33 districts in Maharashtra.

Fund Usage:

Our mission at Salaam Bombay Foundation is: building life skills in children leading to personal & economic empowerment thus giving them the strength to say "no" to tobacco.

We believe our children have a right to a tobacco free life.

We are committed to raise funds towards a mobile tobacco cessation van through the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon 2012.

This mobile van will go to the different parts of the city for:
1. Spreading awareness on the ill effects of tobacco
2. Medical screening for tobacco use and motivating users to quit
3. Encouraging and supporting children and youth to stay tobacco free

We appeal to you to join this movement to bring about a positive change in the lives of our children. Join in our efforts and help raise funds.

Impact:

The use of smokeless tobacco is highly prevalent in India. Tobacco is found in 'gutkha' and 'pan masala with tobacco' with a very high level of usage among the youth. But in the mind of the consumer there is very little product differentiation between pan masala with and without tobacco. The smokeless tobacco industry has taken advantage of this perception over the last few years and has circumvented the ban on advertising of tobacco products by initiating advertisements of plain pan masala.

In recent times, outdoor advertisements of many plain pan masalas with names and packaging similar to their tobacco counterparts have been observed in and around Mumbai (especially on best buses and bus stops as well as during major festivals like Ganesh Chaturthi). For instance, an advertisement for a sachet of "Goa 1000 pan masala" displayed on billboards is almost identical to the advertisement for " Goa 1000 Gutkha".

Therefore Salaam Bombay Foundation conducted a study with a dual objective:

1. To understand whether the advertisements of plain pan masala were really the advertisements of the intended products or whether they were surrogate advertisements for their tobacco counterparts.
2. To obtain context-relevant evidence and thus build a case for the scaling up of the proper implementation of the tobacco control law.

Results:

The study revealed that all three brands i.e. Goa 1000, RMD and Rajshree were associated as gutkha instead of pan masala by the respondents. When a flash card of Goa 1000 was shown to the respondents, 82% of children and 84 % of adults surveyed responded to it saying that it was gutkha. In addition, the study also revealed that this cross association was the highest among children aged 12 -18. This conclusively proved that pan masala brands were successful in promoting their gutkha products to children.

Children representing Salaam Bombay Foundation facilitated a meeting with Mr. D.S.Kharat superintendent of BMC (license & advertisement dept.) and Mr. Yogesh Lakhani, chairman, Bright Media Outdoor Pvt. Ltd (they have the sole advertising rights for best buses).

As per COPTA 2003 act direct & indirect advertising of tobacco products is not permitted. This was explained to Mr. Lakhani with the help of the law agencies and BMC. The results of the study proved that all pan masala advertising was surrogate advertising for their tobacco counterparts

Follow up:

BMC released a circular to all media companies to stop advertising of pan masala. Mr. Lakhani extended his full support and all pan masala advertising was removed from best buses. Ganpati Pandals have also banned sponsorships from pan masala companies

Page Url :
http://www.unitedwaymumbai.org/ngo72_sbf.htm

Founded Year: 2002

Cause category: Health

Our Supporters

• Ashmit Patel
• Shantanu Mukherji (Shaan)
• Sanjay Parikh
• Sachin Bajaj
• Peter Beckingham