In January this year, the Government of India banned the storage, sale and
use of common salt, making it a criminal offence. This was done on the
grounds that several states in India have areas which are endemic to a
range of iodine deficiency disorders such as goitre.
The ban has primarily benefited the large Indian corporate monopoly houses
and MNC who are into the manufacture and distribution of 'iodised' salt. A
major fallout of these developments is the massive erosion in the market
for common salt. Hundreds of thousands of people involved in the
manufacture, and trade of common salt have been rendered jobless in India.
The skyrocketing of salt prices by more than 500% has particularly
affected the poor inculding the potential victims of iodine deficiency
disorders. As a result salt, traditionally one of the cheapest
commodities, has simply gone out of the staple diets of poorer
households.
The middle classes are being seduced into complicity with this whole
project through campaigns which state that common salt would hamper the
intellectual development of childres, though no such thing has ever
occured in the long history of this country.
Much like the Boston tea party, the Salt Satyagraha is an important event
in the Indian independece movement. Under the leadership of Gandhi,
millions of salt workers who have traditionally had access to natural
resources (including salt) launched a successful movement to demand the
repeal of a British government order imposing tax on salt manufacture. In
this fiftieth year of India's independence the present government is
putting the clock back by half a century.
Less than ten percent of India's population live in IDD endemic areas.
However the rest of the population have now been forced to buy iodised
salt. Scientists (those who do not supoort the monoploy houses) are
contesting the logic of a universal iodisation policy on several grounds
including the fact that iodine deficiency in salt is not the only source
of IDD.
Can people from as many respondents as people respond to the following
question. This will be very important in the campaign against the
government's policy.
Do other countries, notably in the west alo have a policy of universal
iodization of salt? Is common or natural salt sold in other countries?
Do health hazards occur as a result of excess consumption of iodine?
Thanks in advance/
D.Parthasarathy
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences
Indian Institute of Technology, Powai
Mumbai, 400076, India
Phone: 091 022 576 7372
email: dp@hss.iitb.ernet.in
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