Volume : 5, Issue : 1, January - 2016

Assessing compliance to smoke - free legislation in public places of Jaipur City, Rajasthan

Dr. Mamta Chauhan, Dr. M. L. Jain, Dr. Bhumika Talwar

Abstract :

<p>&lt;p&gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Aims and objectives: The objective of the study was to assess the current level of compliance to section 4 of COTPA in Jaipur city and assess the preparedness of Jaipur city for declaring it as a smoke free city. Methodology: It was a cross sectional study conducted from 20 Feuary 2013- 20 March 2013 in Jaipur city, with use of an observation checklist developed by the &amp;amp;ldquo;International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease&amp;amp;rdquo;. This survey was conducted using the cluster sampling; hence the 1.3 was taken as design effect. A total of 494 public places were observed and in each clusters, total 164 public places (of all seven categories) surveyed Results: Out of the 494 public places in Jaipur city , only 199 (40%) places have displayed &amp;amp;lsquo;No Smoking&amp;amp;rsquo; signage&amp;amp;rsquo;, out of which only 49 (25%) are the places which follow the COTPA of having signage at both the entrance and other conspicuous places .But 80 (40%) places had these signage at the entrance while 119 (60%) had these displayed at other conspicuous places .The places which displayed &amp;amp;lsquo;No Smoking Signage&amp;amp;rsquo; only 11% (56) matched the size of the signage of 20 x 40 inch, 6% (32) followed the text of the signage, 11% had a design similar to COTPA and only 2% gave contact details of the reporting person. When we take a look at the evidences of smoking in Jaipur city, we find that at 95 (19%) places people were found actively smoking in the public places while smoking aids &amp;amp;ndash; facilitating smoking as ashtrays, match-sticks etc were found at 85 (17%) places and 131 (26.5%) places shows the availability of cigarette butts and beedi stubs. Conclusion: A majority of the places were not complying to the COTPA presently, and those who were following the norms are not abiding completely to the specifications as per notification of the act .&amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;</p>