Bad company, immature infatuation, destructive role of media, unemployment, broken family and easy availability of cigarettes led to the increase of smoking in our country. Our young generation adopts smoking as a fashion, or to be the part of that so called high society and unfortunately they ended up by becoming its slave. They have this foolish impression in their minds that somehow smoking makes them intellectual and they cannot do any creative work without having a cigarette in their hands. But there is nothing magical in that smoke of cigarette. Smoking can give temporarily relief but the serious hazards. It has proved to be the root cause of lung diseases, cancer, asthma, bronchitis and various respiratory diseases. It causes weakness of eye-sight and ultimately leads to blindness.
Smoking is actually a man-made, self- inflicted curse and is encumbered with socio-economic consequences. Adolescence is a period when many choices must be made. At this stage, lack of parental control makes the youngest to accept pressure from friends. Some people adopt smoking to overcome frustration and mental agony. There is no restriction on the easy availability of cigarettes in colleges and universities also aggravate the problem. Not only boys but girls also smoke which is really bad for their health which reflects the idea that our generation has totally forgotten their social norms and taboos. Neglecting the rule of university students keep smoking in university premises.
In order to control the situation, our Government has taken some steps to eradicate the rising tide of smoking. Cigarettes companies have been asked to print health warnings on each packet of cigarettes. But the campaign turns out to be a total fiasco. In short, the steps taken aren’t sufficient.
