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Anti Tobacco Campaign

The Anti Tobacco Campaign was organized by WAYE in association with Ministry of Health & Family Welfare & WHO, India from November 20 - 23, 2008 at Noida.

"For India to occupy her rightful place in the Comity of Nations and to meaningfully discharge the manifold obligations thereto, it would be imperative to ensure the effective pursuit of youth development programmes which promote personality development and Qualities of Citizenship and enhance commitment to Community Service, Social Justice, Self-reliance, National Integration and Humanism, an inclusive view of the entire universe as enshrined in our ancient scriptures. The Policy, therefore, recognizes these inter-related values and principles as its basic premise." - National Youth Policy 2003

Keeping such a vision in mind, 'UTSAV', a short, holistic and effective module was executed towards awakening, empowering and involving the youth for social transformation. More than 4500 young people in the age group of 18-30 years from over 40 colleges in NCR reverberated together, to create an echo of love, responsibility and commitment.

The sessions were conducted by the Directors of the programme itself, i.e Mr. Khurshed Batliwala and Mr. Dinesh Godhke. Utsav, a four days programme with four hours session each day, was scheduled from November 20 - 23, 2008 at Noida.

Day 1: Introduction

The first day of the event was dedicated to the introduction of traditional wisdom and how to apply simple values in daily life.

Day 2: Awakening towards tobacco free society

Completely focused on personal development and inter- personal relations of an individual, day two included the profound breathing technique - Sudarshan Kriya.

Day 3: Taking responsibility towards tobacco free society

Responsibility towards oneself and society were the main focus of the third day. The participants had an interactive session with His Holiness Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.

Day 4: Transformation - Pledge

The last day of Utsav brought a lot of motivation and inspiration for each one of the participants through group processes, games and music.

On the platform of Utsav, His Holiness spread his message of love, peace, responsibility and commitment to the youth. He said that being the future leaders, we need to take responsibility and act towards goals collectively and cohesively. The other main topics of discussion were:

Substance abuse and de-addiction
Citizenship qualities and loving the country

Given the alarming statistics related to drug use especially in metropolitan cities among youth, it is not wrong to say that the use of drugs and tobacco is ruining the youth of the country.

The session with Mr. Khurshed on de-addiction of smoking and drugs opened the young minds to a new dimension. The participants were made aware of the fact that one should neither use nor promote the use of such type of elements. They were encouraged to tell at least 10 friends about the dangers of smoking and use of tobacco.

Pledge

The most important part of the four-day programme happened on the last day, when young awakened crowd of the NCR took a pledge for not using and not promoting the use of smoking and tobacco. This was an oath by the self-inspired and motivated group, who wants to take constructive actions for the nation. For the first time in the history, 4500 responsible youth took part in a campaign like this.