Anti-tobacco activists to kickstart celebrations today
Presley Thomas
Bandra
A bunch of students transformed a college project into a movement against tobacco a year back. The success of the movement would surprise many as now about 3,000 students are endorsing the movement called Students Working Against Tobacco (SWAT).
An initiative taken by only four students from Event Management Development Institute (EMDI), Bandra, SWAT has spread across other cities like Pune and Bangalore. For their first anniversary celebrations, the EMDI students have lined up a series of events.
Hardik Desai, a member of the SWAT committee, says, “We don’t enforce ourselves on anybody who is smoking. Our message is very simple. We ask students not to smoke their first cigarette. This year EMDI had organised Malhar for St Xavier’s College and received a great response.”
Girisha, another EMDI student, says, “It was at Malhar that students from Poddar College asked us to organise their annual fest Enigma. We had also organised the Kaleidoscope for Sophiya’s. We have a humorous approach in asking people to say no to tobacco.”
Kunal Malekar, who has been at the core of activities, lists out the events lined up for the anniversary celebrations. “We have planned to have a bike rally, a signboard campaign, a fashion show and the annual smoke-free rock concert which will spread the message of — say no to tobacco.” The SWAT movement is being endorsed by celebrities like Jackie Shroff, DJ Suketu, Milind Deora, Rahul Nanda, Raghav and Sunidhi Chauhan.The celebrations will kick start with a smoke-free party at Club Seven in Bandra on October 18. Shashank Gupta, a member of the committee, says, “About 250 students from EMDI will take part in the party.” Gaurav Soni, a founder member of SWAT, says, “We can’t ask someone to quit smoking forcefully. Instead, we thought of a witty way to convey our message.”
Founder of EMDI, Deepak Choudhry, says, “The initiative by students have picked up really well. Already about 3,000 students have endorsed SWAT. Now they are working towards having a smoke-free party once every month at various clubs. The basic aim is to incorporate a branch of SWAT in almost all the city colleges.”
South Mumbai MP Milind Deora, has been a supporter of this movement. “Usage of tobacco has to be tackled at the grass root level and the students are doing exactly that. It’s great that the students have initiated this movement.”Say cheese: Students from EMDI Institute — Amey Mansabdar/DNA