Cigarette stalls adjacent to schools in Dhaka, education environment hampered

It was 1:45 pm. Four female students of Government Jamila Aynul Anondo School & College were having fuchka, a type of snacks, after the school hour at a stall in front of the school. At that time, smokers from adolescent to elderly, were smoking openly there.

The students ventilated their pent-up anger over this to this correspondent. They said a lot of tea and cigarette stalls have grown like mushrooms around the school and Shyamoli park, where cigarettes are sold in open the whole day, and objectionable “adda” continues from the morning until late night.

The students said they do not want to see cigarette stalls near their school.

A visit to Shyamoli, Mohammadpur, Dhanmondi, Mirpur, Uttara and other areas of the capital city on 4 May and 22 June revealed that cigarette and tea-stalls have been set up occupying the footpaths within 100 yards of educational institutions in those areas. Some people are doing business setting up sitting benches on the footpaths.

When this correspondent met three seventh graders of the Government Jamila Aynul Anondo School & College at the school premises during his visit on Sunday, they said the students of the school play football and cricket at Shyamoli park. But the park’s environment is degrading because of the adda of the smokers.

The park has designated areas for children, elderly people and good facilities for women. There is a gallery too there to enjoy games. But the environment of education and recreation is taking a hit due to the cigarette, tea and betel shops and adda of the errants and dissolutes.

As per the guidelines to implement the tobacco control act, selling of any tobacco products within 100 metres of any educational institution is completely prohibited. However, selling of tobacco products is going on rampantly at stalls set up adjacent to the educational institutions across Dhaka city.

Speaking about this, Sardar Atik, assistant professor of psychiatry at Bangladesh Medical University told Prothom Alo, “Children and adolescents are imitative. When they, coming out of parks and sports grounds, see people older than him smoking, this surely affects them and could make them interested in smoking. Another thing is, cigarettes are available to the students. This could lead many to smoking out of curiosity.”

Chhayanaut is the country’s renowned music school, which is located at Dhanmondi-15. There are around 8-10 cigarette and betel stalls at the two sides of the school building. A visit to the area shows smokers were having adda in front of the school building.

Nazrul Islam and Nasir Hossain, two supervisors of two shops, acknowledged it was an illegal act to sell cigarettes, setting up shops occupying footpaths in front of an educational institution. They said they were forced to do this as they did not have any alternative source of income.

Apart from teaching music at the school, the building of the over 50-year-old institution is used by Jatiya Rabindrasangeet Sammilan Parishad, Nalanda High School, Kanthashilon and Bratachari for their organisational activities.

Journalist Mahfuzur Rahman was waiting for his two children, who study at Nalanda High School, on the premises of Chhayanaut.

“Chhayanaut building is one of the top places of cultural activities of Bangladesh. But just look at the situation here, cigarette smoke fills the whole area. This simply cannot be allowed to continue,” he told Prothom Alo.

Several cigarette and tea stalls have sprung up along the southern side of the Chhayanaut building. Smokers gather around these stalls from morning till night. Smoke enters the classrooms through the building’s wide windows. Children aged between 3 and 17 regularly attend classes there.

Cigarettes are openly sold in various locations across the capital - including Sher-e-Bangla Boys’ School, Bangla School and College in Mirpur, Government Science College in Farmgate, Willes Little Flower School and College in Kakrail, in front of Tejgaon College, and Sector-11 at Uttara.

Several educational institutions, including Milestone School, have been established at Sector-11 in Uttara. Students from these schools and colleges regularly gather at cigarette stalls set up in the alleyways of the residential area, where they are often seen smoking openly.

Wishing not to be named, a young entrepreneur in the readymade garments sector said, “I have been living at Sector-11, Uttara, for nearly 12 years. The sight of students hanging out at cigarette stalls and smoking in public has become a daily scene in these areas. Educational institutions need to step up their supervision on this matter.”

A resident of Rampura, who also requested anonymity, said, “My son studies at Willes Little Flower School in Kakrail. There is an overbridge in front of the school. Two or three makeshift stalls sell cigarettes there from morning till afternoon. Students on their way to and from the school see people smoking. This is affecting their mental development. The risk of them becoming addicted to smoking is also increasing.”

Speaking about this, Dhaka South City Corporation’s chief health officer Nishat Parveen told Prothom Alo, “Regional officers oversee the eviction of cigarette stalls near educational institutions. As far I know, an eviction drive was carried out last year. From the health department, we also conduct awareness campaigns at schools against smoking. However, no such campaign has been carried out so far this year. This will be done soon.”

There is a cigarette stall right in front of Mohammadpur Government School, located in the Camp Bazar area of Mohammadpur. It was observed around 12:30 pm Sunday that a group of young people had gathered there. People of all ages, from teenagers to the elderly, were smoking openly.

Locals said drugs are easily available in the Camp Bazar area of Mohammadpur. As a result, users from across Dhaka gather there.

According to the World Health Organization’s Global Adult Tobacco Survey in 2017, there are 37.8 million tobacco users in Bangladesh. The latest figures from the Tobacco Atlas show that in 2019, 6 per cent of children aged 10–14 in Bangladesh were tobacco users.

A road from Camp Bazar leads directly to the front of the Jannatbagh Eidgah. Football and cricket are played every morning and afternoon on the small ground there.

Three students of Mohammadpur Government School were practising cover drives on the cricket pitch there. They said they are constantly disturbed by the cigarette stall in front of their school and the groups of drug users who gather around the field. Due to the poor environment of the school and field, they want to leave the Mohammadpur area.

* The report, originally published in the print and online editions of Prothom Alo, has been rewritten in English by Shameem Reza