The disastrous health effects of Indonesia’s smoking epidemic are well documented, with some of the world’s highest smoking rates (including disturbingly high child smoking rates) leading to over 200,000 tobacco-related deaths each year. Not as often discussed are the enormous economic impact cigarettes have on Indonesian families as well. At around Rp 20,000 ($1.50) per pack, cigarettes are extremely cheap compared to countries with strict tobacco regulations, but in a country where over 10% of the employed population subsists on less that $1.90 per day that means the percentage of household budgets going towards tobacco can be enormous.
The health ministry’s limited attempts to decrease smoking rates (which are at odds with other government policies designed to increase tobacco-based revenue), such as the graphic warning on cigarette labels, have obviously not made a huge dent in Indonesia’s smoking problem. Nor did a fatwa against smoking from the Indonesian Ulema Council.
Perhaps an economic argument would be more effective.
As evidence, we present this post from Facebook user Dita Sari Wootekh, which has gone massively viral since it was posted last Friday and already been shared over 74,000 times.
https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=818598931640789&id=100004720696249
In the post, Dita explains that her husband quit smoking, of his own accord, back in November 2015. She wasn’t sure he could do it as he previously smoked 3-4 packs per day.
But Dita said he was committed to becoming healthier and stuck with it. He also decided to use the family’s old aquarium tank as a piggy bank to deposit a Rp 20,000 bill each day to represent the money he was saving by not smoking. Dita thought it was funny at first since the aquarium was so big, but it didn’t take long for it to fill up with green bills.
With mudik (the homecoming for the Eid holiday) coming up, the family decided to see how much money was filling up the aquarium.To their surprise, it was enough to buy a new motorcycle.
It’s impossible to translate Dita’s tone without all of the CAPS and smiley faces, but it’s clear that she’s bursting with pride for her husband and his drive to better himself to better his family.
Among the nearly 20,000 comments on the post so far are encouraging messages from those who have also quit smoking as well as many sad pleas for advice from women who are trying to convince their husbands to stop smoking as well.
To see another example of the stark economic benefits of quitting smoking, one could also look to tiny Bone-Bone village in Sulawesi, the first village in the country to impose a total ban on smoking. Economic concerns, not cancer, were what prompted the village head at the time, Muhammad Idris, to implement the ban. He said many poor families in the area could not afford to send their children to school because their fathers were spending too much on cigarettes.
“I went to college with 13 other students from this village, only six graduated, the rest dropped out because they spent their tuition money on cigarettes,” Idris told AFP.
Amir, a blacksmith and father of nine in Bone-Bone, was forced to end his 40-a-day habit by the ban, but said he is much better off today.
“I can save money, I can buy what my family needs and — most importantly — I can pay for my children’s education.”
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