The campaign to ban endosulfan is gaining momentum even as India is striving hard to persuade the ongoing conference of 172 countries to the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants to postpone this decision by another year.
Endosulfan is a chemical widely used as an insecticide. India produces 70 per cent of the world’s endosulfan from which a substantial amount is being exported to China. In the actual terms, India is producing roughly 12 million litres valued at a total of `4,500 crores.
People’s Health Initiative chairperson, Dr Mira Shiva, who has been in the forefront of pushing for a ban cites numerous examples of neutogenic, carcinogenic and also tertatogenic effects on pregnant women as being the key reasons for the implementation of this ban.
“Sixty countries have banned the use of this drug, including the European Union. Other nations, including Canada, Brazil and United States, are in the process of phasing out its use,” she said.
India has taken the position that the pesticide ban is not based on sound scientific criteria and that the decision to ban must be must be arrived at by consensus. Millions of Indian farmers will be affected by this ban and it is one more attempt to impose trade compulsions on India.
Its position is backed by countries including Japan, South Korea, China, Bolivia and Oman who argue that any ban will immediately raise the cost of food production since any alternative insecticide will cost ten times more.
Mr R. Hariharan, chairman of the International Stewardship Centre, present at Stockholm also felt that financial and technical assistance must be provided to developing countries before an outright ban is implemented. Already, Uganda and Indonesia have demanded financial assistance be provided if they ban its use.