The industry that exploits the inborn human desire to look attractive is cosmetic industry. Even long before the start of the modern industrial age, people knew the use of fresh turmeric, sandal-wood paste, rose water and many other herbal leaves, stems and roots for enhancement of beauty. Usually the female of the human species had a natural inclination to make good use of such substances. The same is true today but with time male members of high society too have started their own version of facelift. Beauty parlour is no longer exclusive to the fair sex, men are increasingly gate-crashing into the domain. Spas for men and women are there in order to take care of the whole body so that one feels relaxed and soothed.
Not everyone, though, has the wallet thick enough to enjoy the costly modern services in parlours and spas. The majority depend on their own care to heighten their feature with a kind of domestic make-up of their own making. But the ingredients are no longer mostly homemade. Only a few items like lemon, fresh turmeric, cucumber and the like are sparsely used. But they have to rely on cosmetics available in the market. And here the social discrimination is more flagrant than anywhere else. Local varieties of beauty-enhancing products are way behind the foreign brands. The latter is outrageously costly for the majority of people in developing countries like Bangladesh.
However, the bombardment of advertisement is so unrelenting that uninitiated target population, particularly girls with dark skin, get swayed by this modern myth. The adverse entertainment --as advertisement can be segmented -- no longer remains so when the spurious type is used by unsuspecting teenagers. Fairness cream --no matter if it is a genuine brand cannot turn dark skin fair like that of Angelina Jolie or Katerina Kaif. But the ads create a make-believe world where this magic is possible. Frustration on the part of a handful of users has even led to their tragic end in this mortal world.
When so much is at stake, news comes from a western division of the country that not only are village markets but also those of small towns and even the divisional city are replete with fake or look-alike cosmetics. There is at least no danger of using the genuine local brands which are cheaper and not as high quality as the reputed foreign brands. But when the spurious types flood the market, there is a chance for consumers to be cheated. They pay the value of the real product to get something dubious with the potential of inviting diseases like skin cancer unwittingly.
And there is no reason to think that the problem is confined to the particular division in the country's west. If west is under attack, how long does it take to waylay other areas of the country? This means that an underworld syndicate is at work to churn out fake cosmetics like spurious medicines. Consumers are already at their wit's end to counter the business syndicates which operate clandestinely to fleece them. They are genuine businesses but take recourse to unethical method in order to manipulate market with the sole objective of raising prices at an astronomical level. They want to make quick bucks by enforcing their monopoly in the market. Their syndicated effort is successful most of the time because government intervention is either undesirable or fruitless in a so-called free-market economy.
When unscrupulous genuine businesses hold the country a hostage, the outright dishonest section just feels no compunction to produce spurious goods and commodities of beauty enhancement. That one or two small units of such illegal products are in operation is one thing and that the collective strength of them is good enough to flood markets is a different proposition. It is surprising that underworld activities like this do not get detected. If the law-enforcement agencies do not turn a blind eye or lend tacit support in exchange for bribes, such wholesale spurious businesses cannot go on.
It is time the administration launched determined drives against such illegal manufacture of commodities. Cosmetics are not eatable or edible items but those can prove dangerous to users. Also consumers have the right to get their money's worth. Fraudulent or spurious business is a disgrace for a country aspiring to standardise its products in order to compete with the counterparts from abroad.
Beauty enhancement or inviting perils!
Nilratan Halder | Published: October 22, 2016 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00
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