Smoking ban: The economics behind it, and more!

India has imposed a new ban on smoking in public places from October 2, 2008, the 139th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Four years ago too, one such 'ban' was 'imposed.' However, it was royally ignored and people continued to puff away in restaurants, clubs, bars, you name it. . .

According to a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in February this year every 10 deaths in India from 2010 would be smoking-related.

So will the ban be successful this time? Anti-tobacco activists, general public as well as law enforcement officials offer a pelthora of feelings: from sceptical to confident.

As per the law while smoking in places like restaurants, offices, bars, libraries, malls, trains, buses is prohibited, people can smoke at home, in their cars, in parks, and on streets. But can this ban be implemented? The revenue that tobacco generates for the government, the resistance to the ban by smokers, the lack of manpower with local governments to enforce the ban, et cetera, are big hurdles to a total ban.