India forced to eat iodised salt

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Ban on non-iodised salt to go

SHARAD GUPTA

 

 

 

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NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 13: Bowing to pressure from the Swadeshi Jagran

Manch (SJM), the Union Ministry for Health has decided to lift the

ban on sale of non-iodised salt in the country. A Government

notification is expected to be issued tomorrow.

 

For the record, Ministry officials claim to have based their decision

on over 5000 petitions received from people, the opinion of the

scientific community expressed at seminars and business houses and

the feedback from health ministers of various states.

 

But what about prevention of goitre caused due to iodine deficiency?

Ministry officials say there are different modes of administering

iodine and iodised salt was only one of them. ``Anyway goitre is

found only in thehills and foothills,'' an official claimed.

 

The Manch had opposed compulsory sale of iodised salt because at Rs 6

a kg it was too expensive for the poor compared to ordinary salt

which costs less than Re 1 per kg. SJM leaders had alleged that

multinational companies, which have a major share in the Rs 2500-

crore annual business, were behind the ban imposed by the Centre in

May 1998.

 

The SJM had planned a reverse ``Dandi March'' -- from Dandi to

Sabarmati in Gujarat -- from October 2, in protest against the ban.

It had also decided to make non-iodised salt there and sell it in

Delhi in violation of the ban.

 

The very fact that the ban is being lifted despite opposition from a

big section of the scientific community and by over 60 per cent of

state health ministers, including that of the major salt producing

state of BJP-ruled Gujarat, shows that the Government acted under the

SJM's pressure.

 

The decision is another chapter in the blow-hot-blow-cold relations

between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and the Sangh Parivar.

The SJM has described it as ``people's victory''. A SJM leader said

``no one can be forced to consume expensive iodised salt produced by

multinational companies.''

 

Ministry officials, however, say the basic criterion for lifting the

ban was the argument by Kerala health minister that ``you can't force

anyone to eat as per your specifications. A man from Punjab can't be

pressured to eat only idlis. It is a highly emotional issue.''

 

Despite removal of the ban, non-iodised salt can't yet be sold openly

due to a similar ban imposed by over 25 states by amending Prevention

of Food Adulteration (PFA) Act 1954. ``It's up to the various states

governments to allow sale of non-iodised salt in their territory,''

ministry officials states.

 

Besides Gujarat, among the states which opposed lifting of the ban

was West Bengal while Kerala and Rajasthan favoured sale of non-

iodised salt at Union Health Minister C.P. Thakur's meeting with

state health ministers here on August 31.