BAT uses children to sell cigarettes at Bangladesh universities: anti-tobacco activist

The British American Tobacco, or BAT, Bangladesh is using children and girls to sell cigarettes among university students in the country.

Syed Mahbubul Alam, the technical adviser of The Union in Bangladesh, said they discovered the practice while investigating why all child vendors in the Dhaka University campus area used similar boxes to sell cigarettes.

He said local tobacco industries also use children particularly girls in selling their products.

“BAT provides support to children so that they can continue to sell cigarettes,” he said, presenting a paper at a session on the multi-country experiences of the tobacco industry’s interference, at a world conference on lung health being held in Guadalajara, Mexico.

The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, or The Union, organised the conference.

Tobacco is seen as one of the key risk factors in a variety of diseases.

Alam said anybody can sell cigarettes in Bangladesh in the absence of a tobacco selling permit. Tea sellers also sell cigarettes and bidis.

The tobacco companies give gifts to vendors so that they sell their products. “This comes apart from their profits,” he said.

“They also use girls in selling cigarettes to the university students,” he said, adding that in the absence of national law, they are trying to convince local government authorities to issue guidelines to take licence for selling cigarettes under their jurisdiction.

Due to his organisation’s effort, many vendors have taken licences in eight municipalities: Jessore, Jhinaidah, Kushtia, Madaripur, Rajbari, Chuadanga, Magura, and Narail, Alam later told bdnews24.com.

According to the tobacco control law, no person can sell tobacco to children and also cannot engage them in marketing or distribution of tobacco products in Bangladesh.

BAT refused to comment on the allegation.

The tobacco industry’s influence in Bangladesh is well-known, as is their interference in making laws and their implementation.

Alam said tobacco companies use their agents to pay vendors so that they sell their products and also display those at the points of sale, defying existing laws.

Speakers at the session discussed the illegal interference of the tobacco industry in their countries.

A lecturer of the University of Indonesia Abdillah Ahsan said the government, by law, considers the “aspirations” of tobacco companies in taxation policy.

“We are trying to convince the government to change the law. But many politicians are pro-tobacco,” he said.

Ahsan, however, said local authorities are imposing additional taxes to fund the universal health coverage scheme of the government which has a huge deficit.

Banks' ethical breach

Pranay Lal, The Union’s technical adviser in New Delhi, asked the anti-tobacco campaigners to track the investments by financial institutions in tobacco companies.

Citing research, he said, 42 of the top 50 global banks, including Citi and HSBC, invest and support tobacco industry domestically and in offshore projects, despite the fact that those banks conform to global socially responsible investment (SRI) standards.

He said roughly €3.7 trillion in assets and investments are managed by SRI funds worldwide which motivate institutional investors to take a more stringent view on ethical investing.

“Ethical investing precludes not investing in tobacco industry or its stocks. Tobacco is a cross-cutting area where such investments are forbidden,” he said.

He said tracking those investments made by both governments and private financial investors in the tobacco sector can influence in mitigating the proliferation of the industry in the future.