How to bring in a social change in relation to a social menace which kills about 10 million people every year (in India itself) was the focus of the one day workshop conducted by Burning Brain Society (BBS). The workshop was conducted for the health workers, community leaders, change agents which included religious leaders, political and social workers, teachers, enforcement agencies and other such like people who have a role in bringing a change.

Discussing about the role of a change manager, Mr. Hemant Goswami, the chairperson of BBS said that change does not happen overnight; it is a long process and may take decades to reflect, so the change manager should be willing to work without rewards, recognition or immediate results or gains and even face the oppositions for long periods of times. Mr. Goswami added that every social problem starts as a spike and utter neglect, disregard and apathy makes the problem big and of unimaginably size that it becomes very difficult to even handle it. Tobacco problem has reached that stage and it is very important to tackle it in an urgent manner but with a futuristic approach.

Dr. Rajesh Kashyap of IGMC informed that each cigarette reduces the life span of a person by about 15-20 minutes and a passive smoker by 5 minutes. Tobacco is directly responsible for causing the death of half of its lifelong users by reducing the quality of life and the lifespan by around 14 years was another fact revealed by Dr. Rajesh.
Dr. Sanjay from community medicine department of P.G.I. presented startling facts about tobacco use among youths in Chandigarh, he revealed that there was a growing trend among the young people of Chandigarh in case of tobacco consumption. The fact was supported by Dr. Nitesh Painuly of Tobacco Cessation Clinic, PGI who delivered a presentation on providing support system to people who want to quit tobacco.

Among the other people who presented relevant details and papers on the subject were; Dr. J. S. Thakur from Community Medicine Department, P.G.I., Dr. Tina Dadwal, Dr. Rajeev Kashyap from Department of Medicine, Haryana and Ms. Anita from the Brahmkumari Ashram.

In the whole workshop one man who really stole the show was the Burning Brain Society volunteer Mr. Attar Singh who had composed three songs on tobacco and presented it during the workshop. The songs were appreciated by everyone and proved to be an effective tool in presenting the facts in an interesting manner.
Interacting with the participants, Mr. Hemant Goswami told that there has to be a unified approach and an effective ground level action must follow such workshops otherwise all such drives are bound to fail. Hemant added, “Since the tobacco companies promote their products all round the year, tobacco is sold all round the year, people consume tobacco day in and day out so marking just one day or one fortnight as No Tobacco day or fortnight is not enough there has to be a ground level action all round the year.”

The BBS activity was supported by World Health Organisation and Ministry of Health & Family welfare.