Few years ago, I went in Bhutan with one of my chain-smoker friends. After finishing his packs of cigarette, he was in deep trouble. Cigarette was not sold everywhere in Bhutan, so he had to roam market to market to find a packet. At last, he paid 250 ngultrum for each cigarette packet, equivalent to Taka 40 per stick, which is a huge amount compared to Bangladeshi tobacco price. But why is the tobacco price in Bhutan so high? We asked a cigarette seller. “We don’t produce any tobacco, so we have to import it from India and China with high custom duty,” he replied.

After that incident, we found out that the Bhutanese government introduced a new tobacco law in 2010. Bhutan officially banned tobacco and announced itself as the first tobacco-free country of the world. That means Bhutan will never cultivate or manufacture any tobacco products, and open sale of cigarettes as well as smoking in public places is prohibited. If you get caught, Bhutanese police can fine you 10,000 ngultrum (200 US dollars).

And what was the outcome of banning public sale of tobacco? “We are not very rich, that’s why many of our smokers have reduced the number of cigarettes they smoke. We are selling half the amount, compared to before 2010. But one thing is alarming, tobacco smuggling has increased,” the vendor added.

Tobacco control in Bhutan is very much inspiring. We did not see anyone smoking in Bhutan, and there was not a single cigarette butt on the road.

But the scenario in Bangladesh is absolutely the opposite. Most Bangladeshis do not know that our country was the first signatory to the World Health Organisation (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, signed in 2003. As a signatory, our country has legal obligation to strictly control tobacco.

Bangladesh first introduced a tobacco control law in 2005, which was amended in 2015. The law covers many aspects to reduce tobacco consumption in Bangladesh. But according to WHO ‘Report on the global tobacco epidemic, 2017’, smoking in Bangladesh has gotten worse since 2008. It says tobacco products are more affordable now than a decade ago.

The WHO report also indicated that 54.8 percent of adult males were using tobacco in 2016. That rate is very high, compared to Bhutan, where a survey in 2014 showed only 10.8 percent of adult males were using tobacco products.

In Bangladesh, you cannot feel there is a tobacco control law. The amended law of 2015 clearly states that any kind of promotion of tobacco products is prohibited, even at the point of sale. But you can see posters and leaflets of tobacco products everywhere. You cannot do any branding with cigarette packets or a company’s colours, but that is happening here. You can buy a single stick of cigarette or bidi anywhere. Tobacco cultivation is increasing and real price of tobacco is decreasing due to low taxation. As a result, tobacco related diseases are also on the rise.

Smoking in public places is strictly prohibited under the law, with monetary penalties, but most people in this country are not aware of it and you can hardly see any enforcement.   

Why is tobacco control not visible in Bangladesh? I asked an official who worked in tobacco control. M Akhtaruzzaman Talukdar, senior assistant secretary, Ministry of Information, informed me that there is a cell in the health ministry on tobacco control with only two officers. So, it is very difficult to monitor violations of the anti-tobacco law all over the country.

Talukdar also indicated that the government should give up its shares of British American Tobacco (BAT), the largest tobacco company in Bangladesh. “You cannot implement an anti-tobacco policy as a shareholder of BAT,” Talukdar added.

Bangladesh has included tobacco control in its Sustainable Development Goals and plans to become a tobacco-free country by 2040. If we seriously want to achieve this target, we require a strong department under the health or home ministry to rigorously implement the tobacco control law.

I would like to mention Bhutan again. We can learn a lot from our small neighbour.  n

The writer is a journalist at

Independent Television.