Putting the Clock Back

THE process by which the injectable contraceptive Depo Provera (and Net en) has been introduced into the Indian market makes a travesty of the efforts of concerned and committed women's and health groups to create common ground for the state, people's movements and researchers on issues such as contraception which crucially and intimately affect the lives of women. For the issue here is not merely the approval given to a contraceptive of questionable safety but the gradual erosion of the rights won by the international health and women's movements over the decade and points to the gathering momentum towards the evolution of a lean and mean stale.