26th Feb`09 `s Economic Times carried an interesting piece of write up, which talks about the spurt in sale of Condoms in India, and tries to connect this development to the prevailing economic slow down. It compares the sales figures of leading manufacturers of Condoms in India, such as HLL Life care, JK Ansell, TTK Healthcare with the previous year`s sales.
A Clinical Psychologist, consulted for that write up says that normally, recession causes depression and it lessens the urge for sex. But Condom sales seems to have defied this logic and its rate of growth(sales) is also phenomenal compared, to US and Europe. Finally Clinical psychologist, observes that, boom in Condom sales can be attributed to anxiety of couples about having their first child or an additional child, as bringing up children these days involves considerable economic commitment.(If the writer had consulted the Head of `Moral police`, on this piece of write up, then he(Head of Moral Police brigade) would have attributed this development to the general tendency of our youth to ape the west and would have ordered his brigade to vandalize, all the shops selling condoms!!!!.)
Really smart piece of write up and good observation right? But it would have been much better, had that report given the geographical breakup of sales so that it can be compared with the economic prosperity, demography of that particular region. Another point which the author of the write up seems to have missed is the impact of “ Condom Awareness” campaign running in print and electronic media over last one year or so.
All said and done these kind of reports/write ups are not new to the readers of Business papers, who are accustomed to reading “Condom Sales increases” reports twice a year, One during Navaratri Celebrations in Gujarat (state specific statistics) and another, days before and after Valentines Day,(pan India statistics) but this time it is connected to economic slow down for a change.
