Government turns a blind eye to manufacture of tobacco-laced gudakhu

RAIPUR: While Chhattisgarh government has taken a proactive role in banning sale of nicotine-laced gutka and pan masala, no regulations seem to be in place to control manufacturing and sale of tobacco-laced dantaghasa (toothpaste) gudakhu, which is considered a major cause of oral cancer in the state.

While Gudakhu, a mix of tobacco and jaggery, was covered under the Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1940 (DC Act) in the erstwhile undivided Madhya Pradesh, no regulations seem to control it ever since the formation of Chhattisgarh. This is despite the fact that courts in other states have held that Gudakhu is a cosmetic product within the meaning of Section 3(a) of the Act and cannot be manufactured for sale or sold without a licence.

Chhattisgarh government, which wittingly or unwittingly turned a blind eye to regulate the manufacture and sale of gudakhu, despite its known adverse health impacts, finds itself in an awkward situation, as it turns out that the family of health minister, Amar Agrawal, is one of the leading manufactures of ‘dantaghasa’, branded "tota chaap", in Chhattisgarh. The minister’s interests in his ancestral family business have given rise to allegations that the government had purposely closed its eyes on the issue.

While no officials are willing to speak on the record on the issue, apparently because of the involvement of the all powerful but controversial health minister in the matter, they privately admit that no regulations govern the manufacture and sale of sudakhu in the state.

When TOI contacted the state’s food and drug controller, Ravi Prakash Gupta, he too refused to speak on the issue, but inadvertently admitted that the "matter is being studied".

Repeated attempts by TOI to get comments on the issue from the health minister, principal health secretary, Alok Shukla, principal secretary public relations, Amitabh Jain, and director public relations, Rajat Kumar, elicited no response. The minister and officers also did not respond to the queries sent to them on their officials email ids.

The stoic silence of the minister and the officers on TOI’s simple query, "is manufacture of Gudakhu covered under the DC Act and if not why", only shows that everything isn’t above board and the government is purposely shying away from saying anything on it.

According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey— India (GATS – 2010) conducted by ministry of health & family welfare, the prevalence of oral tobacco (as snuff, mishri, gul, gudakhu) is highest in Chhattisgarh at 28 per cent. Other states like Odisha and Jharkhand have a prevalence rate of 7.3 per cent and 7.9 per cent respectively.