India is one of the countries where Iodine deficiency is a major cause of concern. According to a survey conducted by the Indian Journal of Medical Research it was found that 263 districts out of 325 that were examined for the survey showed high risk of Iodine Deficiency Disorder which shows the lack of iodine consumption by the people (Pandav et al., 2013, 418-433).
Such deficiency of Iodine in the body can lead to various diseases such as goitre, Hypothyroidism and additional complications like decreased fertility and increased death rate among infants. The lack of iodine consumption by the people shows the lack of awareness among people in rural areas regarding the importance of iodine. In order to combat the problem in India, the Government and various NGOs have started different initiatives at the local and national levels. However, no one comes close to the creativity and effectiveness of the mission launched by the NGO called Grey Singapore which is called ‘The Life Saving Dot’ (Basu, 2015). This article will talk about the idea behind the initiative and its impact on the lives of women in different parts of the country.
CORE INNOVATION
The objective behind launching such an initiative was to help the women in rural parts of India, fight the problem of Iodine deficiency without impacting their daily lifestyle or habits so that they don’t have to invest in any other fancy equipment. These conditions were fulfilled by an ornament. Bindi is widely worn by women in India and the idea of using it as a tool to fight against Iodine deficiency, firstly came to Ali Shabaz who is the Chief Creative Officer of Grey Singapore (Basu, 2015). This was the first initiative of its kind, as never before a traditional ornament was used to fight disease. Grey Singapore saw the potential in the idea and teamed up with “Talwar”, one of the major bindi manufacturers and distributors in India, and also with “Neelvasant Medical Foundation” another NGO, which is widely active in the region of South India, in distribute the bindis to the tribal women, with having the vision of overcoming the Iodine deficiency disease among women. (Basu, 2015).
Manufacturing of such bindis does not require any special machinery and the process of usage is also as simple as placing it on the forehead. Such bindis have a certain amount of iodine in its adhesive roughly around 150-200 micrograms. When a woman wears the bindi some of the iodine which is present in the adhesive, gets absorbed by the skin through the process of dispersion, which takes place through the skin of the person while wearing the bindi (WPP, n.d.). The amount of dispersion of iodine that takes place is around 12% which is around 24 micrograms of iodine a day which will have a significant impact on the health of women.
CONCLUSION
The iodine bindi can be seen as a very effective tool against Iodine deficiency disease. On top of providing various benefits to the user, it has no side effects on the body of women who use them regularly. When it comes to pregnant women, Iodine bindi is safe to use and has no effects on the health of the infants; rather they tend to lower the chances of headache which is common among iodine deficient women during pregnancy.
Iodine bindi has been helping women in rural areas, tremendously in combating iodine deficiency disease, uniquely and creatively. It is one of the very cheap fixes to the iodine deficient diet of rural Indian women. With the advancement of technology its effectiveness and awareness will go up significantly, which can be very helpful to India for eradicating the problem of Iodine deficiency.
Author: Prajal Joshi (2nd Year, BBA-LLB), Symbiosis Law School Hyderabad
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