'Banning' the morning after drug?
Read with concern the morning after drug being removed from the drug stores in Chennai. Considering the current social trends, one would think if there is a tested and proven drug that doesn't have long term implications, then it is a brave move to put it up for over the counter sale. Yes, like the protesters have pointed out there will be its abuse, there will be abuse always.
So what?
The problem with the consumerist civil society movement is that they wait for someone to put a product or a service in the market and then come up with their protests, often they are not against the product, but, that 'others' may not have 'information' and 'discrimination' to use it. The upper middle class that looks down on the lower strata of society often crowd such consumer groups in chennai. It would be worth asking them as to whether their protest is backed up by any survey of why people use an emergency oral contraceptive or how many such cases get un-reported in this city and state (read last year's posting on this subject).
Unless these groups become pro-active and attend to the roots of the social problems that necessitates such drugs, their fight against the corporate world is in vain. It is the larger society that they are part of which that demands such remedies. Women in large parts of tamilnadu, including chennai are oppressed and abused by the male chauvunistic society. Some form of de-chauvunism has to take place combined with the need for sex-education in the higher school level. The objection to the drug banner by this group looks too mundane compared to the drawing room invasion of pre-marital and extra-marital sex issues through the television serials which is part of the staple diet for many. With this being the situation, to protest the marketing of a drug that attends to a social malady seems trivial. If it is a MNC that is marketing it, then it is a meaningless exercise as no government agency in India today can withstand the pressures of such corporates for long (remember the cola wars??)
So what?
The problem with the consumerist civil society movement is that they wait for someone to put a product or a service in the market and then come up with their protests, often they are not against the product, but, that 'others' may not have 'information' and 'discrimination' to use it. The upper middle class that looks down on the lower strata of society often crowd such consumer groups in chennai. It would be worth asking them as to whether their protest is backed up by any survey of why people use an emergency oral contraceptive or how many such cases get un-reported in this city and state (read last year's posting on this subject).
Unless these groups become pro-active and attend to the roots of the social problems that necessitates such drugs, their fight against the corporate world is in vain. It is the larger society that they are part of which that demands such remedies. Women in large parts of tamilnadu, including chennai are oppressed and abused by the male chauvunistic society. Some form of de-chauvunism has to take place combined with the need for sex-education in the higher school level. The objection to the drug banner by this group looks too mundane compared to the drawing room invasion of pre-marital and extra-marital sex issues through the television serials which is part of the staple diet for many. With this being the situation, to protest the marketing of a drug that attends to a social malady seems trivial. If it is a MNC that is marketing it, then it is a meaningless exercise as no government agency in India today can withstand the pressures of such corporates for long (remember the cola wars??)
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