Young people representing all 25 districts of Sri Lanka gathered in Colombo on Monday to urge the government to enact the proposed Tobacco-Free Generation policy into law, the Daily Mirror reports.
The event was organised by the Youth Action Network Sri Lanka (YAN Sri Lanka) to strengthen youth advocacy for protecting future generations from tobacco use.
What the policy would do
The proposal would prohibit the sale of tobacco products to anyone born in or after 2010, with the aim of preventing younger generations from taking up smoking at all. It is a cohort ban rather than an age limit: the people covered by it never become old enough to buy tobacco legally, however old they get.
Participants said authorities needed to act promptly and introduce the necessary legal and policy changes to protect young people from tobacco use and from the influence of the tobacco industry. Organisers said the turnout from every district reflected a commitment to safeguarding public health.
The demand is about a proposal that has not moved since April
The Daily Mirror sets out the chronology: the Sri Lanka Medical Association called for the policy in 2024, the proposal was revived in 2025, and the National Authority on Tobacco and Alcohol (NATA) submitted it to the Health Minister in April 2026.
What that timeline leaves out is what happened at the April submission — and it is the part that explains Monday’s demand.
When NATA presented its concept paper to Health Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa, as this site reported at the time, the Minister welcomed the initiative and instructed NATA to provide detailed legislative-amendment provisions for ministry review. The proposal was never rejected. It was sent back for drafting.
Six months on, no amendment to the NATA Act has been enacted, and the campaigners are asking for the step that was set in motion in April to be completed. The Daily Mirror’s filing does not say whether NATA delivered the drafting the Minister asked for, or where the matter now sits.
The case NATA made
The April concept paper, presented by NATA Chairman Dr. Ananda Ratnayake with L.L. Amila Isuru of the University of Rajarata’s Faculty of Medicine, put the public health argument in numbers: nearly 80% of deaths in Sri Lanka are attributable to non-communicable diseases, with tobacco and alcohol among the leading risk factors, and roughly 22,000 Sri Lankan deaths a year linked to the two substances. Isuru warned at the time of rising cigarette use among schoolchildren.
Those figures are the backdrop to a generational ban. The measure does nothing about current smokers; its entire effect is on people who have not started.
Not reported
The Daily Mirror does not give a number of participants at the Colombo gathering, name any speaker or organiser, or say what form the event took. It does not report where the proposal currently stands inside the Health Ministry, whether a draft amendment exists, or whether the government has given any commitment or timeline.
It carries no response from the Health Ministry, NATA, or the tobacco industry, and does not say whether the campaign has a further stage planned.
Source: Daily Mirror.
