Reconsider the ban: on oxytocin
The Union Health Ministry’s ban on the retail sale and private manufacture of oxytocin, expected to kick off on September 1, is an extremely ill-thought-out one. The drug, a synthetic version of a human hormone, is a life-saver for women. Doctors use it to induce labour in pregnant women and to stem postpartum bleeding. So critical is its role in maternal health that the World Health Organization recommends it as the drug of choice in postpartum haemorrhage.
The government’s ban ignores this, and is motivated instead by the misuse of the hormone in the dairy industry. Because oxytocin stimulates lactation in cattle, dairy farmers inject the drug indiscriminately to increase milk production. This has spawned several unlicensed facilities that manufacture the drug for veterinary use. It is a problem that needs solving. But the right approach would have been to strengthen regulation, and crack down on illegal production. Much is unknown about the ill-effects of oxytocin on cattle.
One of the concerns was that oxytocin leads to infertility in dairy animals, and some studies show this to be true. It has also been linked to mastitis, a painful inflammation of the udder. Milk consumers worry about exposure to it through dairy products. The science behind some of these claims is unclear. In a Lok Sabha answer in 2015, the National Dairy Research Institute was quoted as saying there was no evidence that oxytocin led to infertility. A 2014 study by researchers at the National Institute of Nutrition concluded that oxytocin content in buffalo milk did not alter with injections.
However, even if the ill-effects of oxytocin are real, a ban is not the answer. Oxytocin is simply too important to Indian women, 45,000 of whom die due to causes related to childbirth each year. A parallel to the situation lies in the misuse of antibiotics in humans and poultry. So heavily are these drugs used that they are causing deadly bacteria to become resistant to them. Yet, despite calls for a complete ban on over-the-counter sale of antibiotics, India has been reluctant to do so.
In much of rural India, more people still die due to a lack of antibiotics than due to antibiotic-resistance. This has swung the cost-benefit ratio against outright bans. In oxytocin’s case, if only a single public sector unit manufactures the drug, as the government plans, this could lead to drug shortages and price hikes. Karnataka Antibiotics & Pharmaceuticals Limited, the drugmaker tasked with manufacturing oxytocin, has been asked to cap the price at ₹16.56 for 1 ml of a five international unit (IU) solution. However, some private manufacturers were selling it for ₹4 until now. Monopolising production will remove the low-price options from the market. Such a situation may benefit cattle, but will put the lives of many women at risk.
courtesy : thehindu.com
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Notice sent to SAU PhD student over Noam Chomsky's critique of PM; Sri Lankan scholar resigns
New Delhi: According to The Indian Express, a doctoral research proposal on the ethnography and politics of Kashmir, which referenced American linguist Noam Chomsky's criticism of the NDA government, has resulted in a show-cause notice for a PhD scholar and a disciplinary inquiry for his supervisor at South Asian University (SAU).
Days after the disciplinary inquiry was initiated, Sasanka Perera, a founding member of the Sociology department at SAU and a sociology professor, resigned from the varsity. The PhD scholar has since apologized to the university administration for any offense caused.
Perera, a cultural anthropologist with a Master's and a PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara, held several positions at SAU, including Chairman of the Department of Sociology, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, and Vice President. Prior to joining SAU, he spent 20 years at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and was the Founding Chairman of the Colombo Institute for Advanced Study of Society and Culture.
SAU has denied that the PhD proposal triggered Perera's resignation but did not clarify what was objectionable in the proposal. According to university rules, a PhD student must seek approval from the supervisor, the Dean, and/or the Department Board of Studies before commencing fieldwork. The proposal in question was forwarded to the Dean after being approved by the supervisor, but only after a show-cause notice dated May 9 was issued to the student.
The letter pointed out that the cited video was a private YouTube video from 2021, uploaded in 2022 by the scholar. In the video, Chomsky spoke critically about the Modi government. Explanations were requested from the student and the supervisor for selecting that particular topic. The student responded with an apology and took down the video on May 15. An inquiry committee was subsequently formed to investigate the role of the supervisor and the motive behind the proposal.
Amidst all this, Perera submitted his resignation from the university. SAU, which is sponsored by eight SAARC countries and under the Ministry of External Affairs, recently appointed K K Aggarwal as its president after the post had remained vacant for four years.
Responding to questions from The Indian Express, SAU stated that disciplinary action was taken based on the SAARC Intergovernmental Agreement, Rules, Regulations, and Bye-Laws. The inquiry is still pending.
