|
While the rest of the world was going crazy on Feb 14, hundreds of students of MOP Vaishnav College, Chennai, formed a human chain for promoting a ban on smoking and tobacco products. Organised by the NSS students, the event was a roaring success as more than 400 girls formed the chain, starting from the college up to the Gemini signal.
The students carried many placards with slogans stating the ill-effects of tobacco and smoking. This event was an initiative of the NSS, University of Madras and Adyar Cancer Institute to stop the usage of tobacco at least in public places. ‘100 mts enga area’ was the name of the campaign.
The main aim of the campaign was to curtail smoking for 100 metres around the college premises. After the human chain, the college conducted a programme where the ill-effects of using tobacco was elucidated by a cancer survivor, Sharfudeen, a 68-year-old man. He lost his voice to throat cancer. By using an electrolarynx, an external device, which when pressed against the throat reads speech vibration and converts them to speech, he said, “I don’t want others to suffer the way I do.” He has been actively participating in all awareness activities on cancer and tobacco prevention.
The event concluded with the students of MOP Vaishnav College taking an oath to fight against tobacco and make Chennai a tobacco-free zone.
|