Anti-smoking law
The other day, some of my students and I took our lunch at the BRAC restaurant, situated on the 4th floor of the BRAC-building in Mohakhali, Dhaka. Although the restaurant is mostly visited by educated people and business people, we had to shift from one table to another before we could find a healthy place far enough from the nearest cigarette smokers. When I asked the waiter of the restaurant for the non-smokers zone, to my total surprise, the man gave us a negative answer: smokers and non-smokers are forced to sit side by side in the BRAC-restaurant!
What is appalling is the fact that meanwhile there is an anti-tobacco law in Bangladesh and most of the countries in the world have banned smoking from all public places, including restaurants.
Is it so difficult for a big NGO like BRAC to give the correct example by asking their clientele and visitors to leave their cigarettes outdoors? This has all to do with common sense, nothing else. Just to give BRAC an example: the UNICEF building in Dhaka is declared 100% non-smokers.
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