Sri Lanka, a small island nation in South Asia, hosts a population of 20.2 million people. Influenced by Buddhism that teaches respect to all living beings and an Asian culture that values motherhood, the country has always placed women in a powerful social position. The country\u2019s free health and education systems, together with the aforementioned value system, allow women to be educated with enrolment rates similar to men for schools, and higher than men for universities. Sri Lankan women have a higher life expectancy than their regional neighbours. The country produced the first female Prime Minister in the world in the early 1970\u2019s and a female President two decades later.<\/p>\n
Tobacco was introduced to Sri Lanka during the Portuguese invasion. Supported by the colonial government, British American Tobacco (BAT) initiated the cigarette trade in the early 1900\u2019s. BAT still holds the largest stake in the trade, owning 84% of Ceylon Tobacco Company (CTC); the monopoly holder for manufacturing and selling cigarettes in Sri Lanka. In the past decade, tobacco smoking among men has reduced from around 40% to 22%, and is going out-of-fashion as\u00a0 has other forms of tobacco use (betel quid with tobacco and beedi) . However, one in five men still smoke tobacco in Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n
Comparatively, the smoking rate among women has never surpassed the 1% mark. This is despite a range of tactics used by the industry on Sri Lankan women to get them addicted to its product such as targeted advertisements, product placements, free distribution at social events with young women, employing female models to smoke near female schools, introducing brands \u201cfor women\u201d, and targeted promotion campaigns through social media. The resistance to these precious and influences is due mainly to the country\u2019s bottom-up tobacco control campaigns that have constantly engaged woman at the grass root level, improving their resilience. \u00a0This is backed by a Buddhist Asian culture and a value system that motivates resistance to overindulgence, encourages \u00a0\u00a0a leadership role at the household level managing limited resources for the betterment of their family.<\/p>\n
The targeting of Sri Lankan women by the tobacco industry was not only related to increasing its user base. When the country\u2019s first (and only) female President established a \u201cPresidential Task Force\u201d (PTF) to strengthen tobacco, alcohol, and illicit substance control in Sri Lanka, she was constantly targeted by the tobacco industry via different tactics. Image 1 is an excerpt from a BAT internal document, in which a local CTC Director explains to the BAT patrons how rigorous the intervention was because the CTC was not able to prevent a comprehensive ban on advertisements and promotions that was implemented in 1999.<\/p>\n
At the community level, empowered girls and women are in a continuous battle with the industry\u2019s interference, not only to safeguard themselves from its addictive product, but also to safeguard the country\u2019s policies from the Industry\u2019s negative influence (Image 2). At the grass roots level, community groups working to control tobacco are mainly led by women. When the industry legally challenged the implementation of pictorial health warnings in 2014, the majority of protestors on the streets were women. Thus, Sri Lankan women are a major and a powerful stakeholder group in tobacco control in Sri Lanka, not only resisting to fall for tobacco industry tactics to get them to be users of its products, but also intervening in the \u00a0industry\u2019s interference in their country\u2019s public health.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sarccct.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Image_1-300x211.png\")
[Image 1: An excerpt from a British American Tobacco internal document explaining the attempted interference aimed at the Sri Lankan President related to the advertisement ban in 1999]<\/p><\/div>\n
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![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.sarccct.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Image_2.png\")
[Image 2: A photograph of two school girls in a rural area with a public petition they developed pleading their community to make their village smoke-free]<\/p><\/div>\n
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Manuja N. Perera<\/p>\n
Senior Lecturer in Public Health, Faculty of Medicine University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka &<\/p>\n
Editor, Centre for Combating Tobacco, Sri Lanka<\/p>\n
International Network of Woman against Tobacco<\/p>\n
November 2019<\/p>\n