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Her's is a unique struggle because, she believes the evil effects of gutkha changed the course of her life - her father, a gutkha lover, was diagnosed with oral cancer in 1993. “We kept telling dad to give it up, but he was addicted,” recalls Padmini. As he battled the disease, his daughter's resolve to do something about the ills of gutkha grew stronger
The fact that her father regretted not being warned about gutkha at an early age reinforced her decision. With an increasing number of children getting addicted to gutkha, this former economics student from London University realised the urgent need to reach out to them.
Along with Dr Sultan Pradhan of Prince Aly Khan Hospital, Padmini launched a successful awareness programme in the form of 30-minute plays with Hindi movie songs in city schools.
“Principals were complaining of children littering the schools with gutkha packets, which is an indication of the seriousness of the problem,” she says. Often, after witnessing the play, kids came up to her asking how to quit the habit, but try hard to portray it as a friend's problem. “It's so evident that the child himself eats gutkha, but realising that it's bad they try to pass it off as that of somebody else's.”
Instances of little girls breaking down after watching the plays also occurred. “Many a parents are into this habit and the children feel scared about what could happen to them,” says Padmini.
While welcoming the state government's move, Padmini has serious reservations about rooting out the problem as manufacturing continues unabated. Putting the blame, on the easy availability of gutkha and lifestyle ads which portray gutkha as a safer option to cigarettes, she says, “For the children, gutkha is just like chewing gum, which makes it difficult to dissuade them from giving it UP.”
She points out that kicking the
habit is easier at a Younger age. “For an 18-year-old, it's easy to give
up. For adults, it's harder” However, her record with adults, though on
a different issue, isn't bad either - all the actors performing in her
plays have given up smoking.
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