NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Sunidhi Chauhan was ‘Live in Concert’ in Mumbai on 21 May 2023 to celebrate life and motivate people to quit tobacco use.
The event was organized by the Cancer Patients Aid Association (CPAA), Mumbai in technical collaboration with WHO Country Office for India. This year, the concert featured Ms Sunidhi Chauhan, a youth icon and a well-known singer and performer from the Indian film industry. The concert also saw a performance from Mr Divyansh Kacholia aka DVK Beatboxer, the winner of India's Got Talent Season 9, who regularly performs with Ms Sunidhi Chauhan.
Addressing all the partners in the fight against tobacco the Deputy Head of WHO Country Office for India Ms Payden thanked CPAA, it’s partners and volunteers for spreading awareness on the ill-effects of tobacco and encouraging people to keep away from all forms of tobacco.
Photo: Rina Sinha / WHO India
Each year on 31 May, WHO and public health champions around the world come together to observe World No Tobacco Day (WNTD). This year’s theme is “Grow food, not tobacco” and the global campaign aims to raise awareness about alternative crop production and marketing opportunities for tobacco farmers and encourage them to grow sustainable and nutritious crops.
CPAA has a long history of working in tobacco control and with cancer patients. In the past, WHO India has worked with CPAA for health promotion by organizing on-ground events where film and television actors, singers where several celebrities have pledged support to the cause. To continue efforts to educate the public about harms of tobacco use during the early days of the pandemic, an online music concert was streamed on 7 June 2020 focused on the WNTD 2020 theme of creating a ‘Tobacco-free generation’ and highlighting how smoking tobacco weakens the immunity and makes people more vulnerable to COVID-19. Messages were shared by experts, youth influencers and well-known celebrities from the Indian film and music industry — Mr Salim Merchant and Sulaiman Merchant (Salim-Sulaiman), Mr Shantanu Mukherjee (aka Shaan), Mr Kunal Ganjawala, Ms Neha Bhasin, Ms Bhoomi Trivedi, Mr Vishal Dadlani, Ms Mamta Sharma, Ms Jonita Gandhi, Ms Shilpa Rao, Mr Vivek Oberoi, Ms Neetu Chandra and others. All the celebrities and artists contributed pro bono for these campaigns, shot their videos from home with minimum equipment and technical support.
You can still watch the Music for life concert organised in collaboration with CPAA, WHO and Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in 2020.
Another power-packed show for the youth during the lockdown streamed on TikTok on 7 June 2020 can be seen here.