THE PRESENT-DAY SALT SATYAGRAHA…

This year we are celebrating the 150^th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation – Mahatma Gandhi. It is an ideal time to remember all the iconic movements initiated by him, which started small but slowly became a mass movement.

         He led the Dandi March or the Salt Satyagraha – a non - violent campaign to produce salt from sea water. It was aimed at producing salt illegally, symbolically, to protest against British rule. The Salt Satyagraha drew national and international attention towards India’s Independence Movement against colonial rule.

         As we celebrate the 150^th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, as a corollary, it is axiomatic in today’s times that we initiate a movement to fight against lifestyle diseases. A small but significant beginning to control the epidemic of hypertension, would be to initiate the Salt Satyagraha once again or a veritable Low Salt Movement. It would be a first but firm step to reduce salt intake in our day-to-day lives. This would primarily be achieved by reducing the intake of top-up salts, avoid intake of preserved foods and replace a high sodium diet with a low sodium, high potassium diet.

By creating this health related awareness with an aim to control life style diseases such as hypertension and spreading the slogan “The New Salt Satygraha” or “The Low Salt Movement” amongst the masses, we can truly pay homage to the Father of our Nation.