•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

The number of women taking up smoking increased by more than 300 percent between 2001 and 2004, data released by the Indonesian Women Without Tobacco, or WITT, on Thursday shows.

Nita Yudi, the head of WITT, said that the number of female smokers shot up from 1.3 million women in 2001 to 4.5 million in 2004 and had continued climbing since, though she could not provide any more recent data.

“This stark reality causes great concern as our country ranks third in the world after China and India as the largest smoking country,” she said.

She said that smoking advertisements were to blame for the increasing number of female smokers. Glamorous, fashionable models shown smoking in advertisements persuaded women to take up the habit, she said.

Cigarette companies also targeted school-aged children, with many tobacco companies sponsoring school events, she said. “The companies even give free packages of cigarettes to the students,” she alleged.

“The younger that people are when they start smoking, the more addicted they will get, since they have been smoking longer than people who start in their twenties,” she added.

Nita said many women took up smoking because they believed it would stop them from putting on weight, “and this is an incorrect perception as eating habits play a major part in body weight.”

Increasing stress levels of women carrying out the dual role of mother and worker were also to blame, she said.

Nita said she regretted the fact that tobacco excise tax in the country stood at 37 percent, which meant tobacco prices in Indonesia were the second lowest in Southeast Asia, after Cambodia.

“It is also sad that Indonesia is the only country in Asia Pacific that has yet to ratify the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control,” she said.

The convention, an international treaty that was enacted in February 2005, required 161 nations that ratified it to implement measures to reduce the sale, distribution, and the use of tobacco.

The World Health Organization, or WHO predicted that mortality figures from smoking-related illnesses would stand at 8.4 million people annually in 2020, and half of that number would comprise people from Asian countries.

Meanwhile, the University of Indonesia’s Demographic Institute on Thursday also released a 2006 survey that showed six out of ten Indonesian households, including low-income families, set aside a budget for cigarettes.

Almost one out of every two low-income households, or 45 percent, allotted money for smoking, the data showed.

While the lowest 20 percent of income earners in Indonesia spent 11.9 percent of their wages on tobacco and betel leaves, the richest 20 percent of households comparably spent 6.8 percent of their incomes on their smoking habit, according to the survey.