A Media Sensitization Workshop was conducted at Patna under the aegis of Bihar Voluntary Health Association. The main objective of the workshop was to sensitize the state level key media persons on the various aspects of tobacco control measures, which are the key persons supposed to play a leading role in facilitating implementation of COTPA, 2003 and related issues in the state of Bihar.

The workshop was formally inaugurated by the Chief Guest Mr. R. R. Prasad, Ex-DGP, Bihar and Chief of Human Rights Commission, Bihar

Amongst the main resource persons were Dr. Mahavir Das, Ex – Director in Chief, Health Services, Government of Bihar and Principal Investigator, Tobacco Cessation Centre, Patna, Mr. Ramashankar, Programme Executive, Doordarshan Kendra, Patna, Dr. J.M. Diwan, Dr. Manju Mala, Director, Health, Government of Bihar, Sr. Nirmala, Secretary, Bihar Voluntary Health Association, Mr. Ashish Pandey, Programme Officer, VHAI and Mr. Swapan Majumder, Executive Director, BVHA, Patna)

The workshop was well attended with representation from both the print and electronic media. The print media had representation from prominent newspapers like Sandya Prakash, PTI, Dainik Jagran, Adharsh News, Hindustan. The electronic media had representation from Doordarshan news, Kalyani the Health Bulletin, BBC , Sahara TV News, etc.