Ban on import of animal-tested cosmetics: Activists celebrate 'historic victory for animals'

MUMBAI: India has become the first country in south Asia to completely ban the import of animal tested cosmetics, much to the joy of activists who had been consistently lobbying for it.
Humane Society International/India’s #BeCrueltyFree campaign is also celebrating the "historic victory for animals" due to this ban. Coming just few months after implementation of a national ban on cruel cosmetics testing in India’s labs, the import ban now makes India the first cruelty-free cosmetics zone in south Asia and an example for other nations to follow.
The ban comes in the form of Rule 135-B that states, “Prohibition of import of cosmetics tested on animals. No cosmetic that has been tested on animals after the commencement of Drugs and Cosmetics (Fifth Amendment) Rules, 2014, shall be imported into the country”. The notification will come into effect on 13 November, 2014 (30 days from the date of notification).
Alokparna Sengupta, of HSI-India, said; “This is a huge achievement that could not have been possible without the compassion of our government, consumers and industry. We feel confident that if this vision is applied to other areas of product testing, this can be a defining moment in the modernization of India’s safety science, with potentially hundreds of thousands more animals spared pain and suffering.”
"After intensive efforts by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) India, Union Minister Maneka Gandhi and others, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has made this announcement that will save millions of animals from being blinded, poisoned and killed in cruel and useless tests for products sold to India's billion plus population," said a member of PETA India.
Activist Gauri Maulekhi, trustee of People for Animals, said: “India has shown outstanding leadership by so swiftly advancing first a ban on cosmetics animal testing and now a ban on animal-tested cosmetics imported from overseas. By working so diligently with the #BeCrueltyFree India campaign, our policy makers have put India on the map as a country transforming its laboratories and regulation from outdated test methods to state-of-the-art science. Animals, consumers, scientists and companies have everything to gain from such modernization.”
HSI/India’s #BeCrueltyFree campaign has been instrumental in achieving the final import ban. In June, HSI met with the minister of health and family welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan to present a petition of more than 70,000 signatures supporting an import ban. Support from more than 30 legislators also included Maneka Gandhi, Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda, L K Advani, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi and Supriya Sule.
Pamela Anderson, Esha Gupta, Sonakshi Sinha, Evelyn Sharma, Anoushka Shankar, Poorna Jagannathan, Priya Anand, Neha Dhupia, Raveena Tandon-Thadani, Jacqueline Fernandez, Dia Mirza, R Madhavan, Rahul Khanna, Sunny Leone, Pooja Bhatt, Lara Dutta, Trisha Krishnan, Dino Morea, Esha Deol-Takhtani, Tamannaah Bhatia, Ritwik Bhattacharya, Pia Trivedi and other stars as well numerous MPs previously petitioned the ministry to end the import of cosmetics tested on animals after learning about the issue from PETA India.
India’s dual test and import ban mirrors that of the European Union and is the latest victory in a string of achievements for the #BeCrueltyFree campaign globally. Earlier this year #BeCrueltyFree campaigners in Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, Taiwan and the United States have all celebrated the introduction of bills proposing national cosmetic animal test bans. Efforts by #BeCrueltyFree China also resulted in China removing mandatory animal testing for many domestically-produced cosmetics.