Compliance with the provisions related to higher educational institutes of anti-tobacco/smoking law by institutes of national importance in India.

India formulated an anti-tobacco and anti-smoking law in 2003 in response to its resolutions in the United Nations bodies. This law has been detailed subsequently to make it focussed on educational institutions, which are supposed to perform on-ground action. The first is to put up signboards prohibiting the sale of cigarettes and tobacco products within 100 yards, the second is prohibiting smoking within the campus, and the third is implementing the law and collecting fines from the offenders. The focus of this paper is on Indias premier educational institutions called the Institutions of National Importance by the Indian legislature. These are Indias public institutions which have a focus of the government in making them high quality. The paper checked for the compliance of the Indian anti-smoking and anti-tobacco laws in 79 of these institutions. The Right to Information Act, 2005, Indias transparency law, was used to file applications for information, and certified information from the institutions was collected and reported. The results show an overall weak compliance with the law. Indias health regulators and educational watchdogs must implement anti-smoking and anti-tobacco laws strictly in Indian educational institutions. O_TEXTBOXWhat is already known on this topicThere is noncompliance of Indias anti-smoking /anti-tobacco legislation, esp. signboards. What this study addsThis study adds pan India based compliance at higher educational institutions with a study on fine collection and signboard compliance. How this study might affect research, practice or policyThis study is a wakeup call for Indian educational institutions as India has decentralised implementation of the anti-smoking law to educational institutions and they must perform this duty well. C_TEXTBOX