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Condom conflict: Public sector defends quality standard

A raging controversy in Kerala over the quality of condoms threatens to snowball into a major incident. Ranged against each other are the public sector enterprise, the Hindustan Latex Limited, and outgoing Union Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare Renuka Chowdhury, who has only a few days more in office.

The Hindustan Latex's Employees Action Council has alleged that Renuka has links with private condom manufacturers and is demanding a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into the nexus.

Representatives of the employees council last month met Prime Minister I K Gujral, who is also the health minister, and United Front Convener Chandrababu Naidu, to press for the CBI inquiry. Kerala Chief Minister E K Nayanar had also written to the prime minister on the issue. However, with the present government on its last legs, the employees expect little until the new government takes office.

The seeds of the controversy were sown when in January last, Renuka Chowdhury ordered a cut in the amount of condoms purchased by the government from Hindustan Latex. She ordered the quantity of condoms picked up reduced from 405 million pieces to 205 million pieces. The reduced portion was to be bought from three private companies.

Incidentally, the minister ordered the cut when there exists a memorandum of understanding between the government and Hindustan Latex that the former will purchase the entire quantity of 605 million pieces manufactured by the latter.

To make matters worse, late last year, the company's copper-T unit, employing 200 workers, was shut down after the government withdrew its price preference that the public sector company enjoyed. And with rumours floating that Chowdhury would not give Hindustan Latex an order for the coming fiscal year 1998-99, the employees, numbering 2,000, were, and remain, apprehensive about their future.

Chowdhury cited "poor" quality as the reason for reducing the quantity of condoms lifted from Hindustan Latex. The minister of state for health reportedly told a national newspaper that her priority was quality and not to keep afloat a public sector unit that manufactured substandard condoms, thereby jeopardising the country's entire health programme.

"Our priority is to prevent births and HIV positive cases," she is reported to have said.

However, the Employees Action Council see it differently. "If her concern is quality and Hindustan Latex manufactured substandard condoms, she should have cancelled the entire order instead of just cutting it down. How can she pick up 205 million pieces from the company?" asked Action Council Convener Lalu Joseph, while speaking to Rediff On The Net last week.

Joseph saw an ulterior motive beyond mere concern for quality and wanted the CBI to unearth it. He claimed that the order for the remaining 200 million pieces has been placed with companies whose record on quality is worse that that of Hindustan Latex.

He said the Central Institute of Pharmacopeia Laboratory, New Delhi, had tested the condoms of Hindustan Latex and the other private companies chosen by Chowdhury. As per the tests, 81 per cent of the public sector's products tested faulty, whereas among the private companies, one showed 100 per cent negative results and another tested 91 per cent!

Joseph alleged that the Union minister was trying to strangulate Hindustan Latex in league with some private manufacturers after the government's attempt at privatisation was stalled in the courts. "It doesn't behove a minister to malign a public sector company," he charged. The Action Council leader claimed that the minister had an unholy alliance with the private sector.

Hindustan Latex Chairman G Rammohan was not available for comments. However, an official spokesman confirmed that the New Delhi-based laboratory had rejected the products all the four companies, including Hindustan Latex. He added that the manufacturers had found some errors in the tests and have sought a retest.

Trumpeting Hindustan Latex's high standards, the spokesman said it was the only company in India to get the ISO 9002 certification for the manufacture and sale of condoms. In fact, he added that the public sector enterprise was only the second company in the world selected by the World Health Organisation for the supply of condoms worldwide.

Listing the international recognition accorded to Hindustan Latex, the spokesman said its products had been approved by the United States' Food and Drug Administration, the South African Bureau of Standards, and the European Community, besides international agencies like the United Nations Family Planning Agency and the WHO.

He added that Hindustan Latex has been exporting condoms to 77 countries and no complaints about quality have been received from any country so far.