d.parthasarathy wrote:
> Hello all!
>
> 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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