GUWAHATI: Dr. B Borooah Cancer Institute, Guwahati in support with Narayana Superspeciality Hospital, Kolkata hosted a daylong event comprising of Scientific session, workshop, screening of “Konttho” a film based on Laryngectomy cancer survivor and media interactive session to commemorate 46th Foundation day of Dr. B Borooah Cancer Institute, Guwahati .
The event was organized on the premise of Dr. B Barooah Cancer Institute today. It was graced by the presence of celebrities from the Bengali Film Industry like Filmmaker Shiboprosad Mukherjee & Nandita Roy, actress Paoli Dam, and Jaya Hassan. The focus of the occasion is to highlight the abuse of tobacco use in the state which has witnessed an alarming 9% increase in consumption. Assam has 50.5% men, 32.7% women and 41.7% overall adult users of smokeless tobacco wherin Khaini (23.1%) and Betel Quid (19%) are most commonly used. Smoke tobacco users count to 25.3% men, 0.8% women and 13.3% overall adults. Other commonly used tobacco forms are gutkha, oral tobacco application and pan masala with tobacco. This event will not only create awareness about the issue but will also motivate the youth and adults to quite in-adequate use of tobacco.
The event started with a workshop activity wherein operations of Thyroid Cancer and Cancer caused by tobacco abuse was conducted by specialists from Narayana Superspeciality Hospital and screened live simultaneously in a hall for the internal doctors of Dr. B. Barooah Cancer Institute.
Foundation Day oration was delivered by Dr. Amal Chandra Kataki, Director BBCI, Guwahati said “DR. B. BOROOAH CANCER INSTITUTE(BBCI) was formed to commemorate the memory of Dr. Bhubaneswar Borooah a great physician, freedom fighter & philanthropist of Assam and the foundation was laid 46years ago from now, the Institute is a proud visionary establishment in North East India, we have come many a mile from where it all began to the present status of being a Grant-in-Aid Institute of Dept. of Atomic Energy, Govt. of India and a unit of Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai.
Attending the event Mr. Shiboprasad Mukhopadhyay, Film Maker, Windows Production, Kolkata said, “. The film was inspired by late Bibhuti Chakraborty, a cancer survivor, whose vocal cord was removed by doctors, but he fought all the obstacles and helped others to overcome their struggles. We are happy that through our movie Konttho we were able to provide a strong social message and an insight into the journey of a cancer survivor and his/her family we hope it spreads its benefits to all concerned.”
It was followed by a media interactive session, underlining the issue of tobacco abuse in the state and the initiatives taken by Dr. B Barooah Hospital and Narayana Superspeciality Hospital to control it.
Subsequently, the highlight of the event, screening of “Konttho-Sound of Silence”, directed by Nandita Roy and Shiboprosad Mukherjee, concluded the event wherein celebrities from Bengali film industry and Assamese film industry were present for interaction. Konttho was selected as the Indian entry for the Best International Feature Film at the 92nd Academy Awards.