Travel guides call Ernakulam in Kerala, India the “Queen of the Arabian Sea” because of its spectacular beauty. Now it has an additional feature to boast about: it is smokefree.

Travel guides call Ernakulam in Kerala, India the “Queen of the Arabian Sea” because of its spectacular beauty. Now it has an additional feature to boast about: it is smokefree.

The district is a well-known tourist destination and the commercial capital of Kerala State, so it has become a model that tobacco control supporters hope to see replicated throughout the other 13 districts of the state.

A study of compliance showed that 96% of public places in Ernakulam are smokefree, and there is “no smoking” signage in 94% of the required locations. Kerala Voluntary Health Services (KVHS), a Union Bloomberg Initiative grantee, were instrumental in achieving this success.

KVHS has been working for the past 18-months on a civil-society advocacy campaign that involved collaborating with the Kerala State Government to build awareness of what tobacco control entails. The Union’s staff in South East Asia also provided integral technical support in the process.

Building on the success achieved so far, the campaign is continuing to ensure that the goal of 100% smokefree public places in Kerala and tobacco-free educational institutions is reached. This includes a ban on the sale of tobacco products within 100 yards of educational institutions. A smokefree Ernakulam is a significant victory on the road to achieving these goals.

The partnership between the Kerala State Government and civil-society groups such as trade associations, bar workers and taxi drivers, was instrumental to the success in instituting a smoking ban and driving the campaign forward. The trade unions participated in awareness-raising activities, such as training on the importance of signage and other issues surrounding tobacco use.

The collaboration between Kerala State Government and civil society also extends to enforcement. Indian Tobacco Control Law authorises institutional directors and managers in the public sector to enforce smokefree public places. Ernakulam’s enforcement of the national smokefree laws goes a step further as it allows collaboration with at least two civil society groups at the district and sub-district level to ensure that smokefree enforcement reaches the grassroots level. This campaign has so far trained 6,000 volunteers and 2,000 enforcement officials. It has also raised the capacity of 56 civil-society groups to deal with tobacco control issues.