As I was complaining that lateral thinking was dearly missing when it comes to condom promotion and sale, The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and the Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust (HLFPPT) installed two “camouflaged” vending machines in Mumbai as part of a ‘condom normalisation campaign’.

The originality of these Condom Vending Machines (CVM) is that they provide other general products like soaps and snacks too. “When we installed 3000 CVMs in Mumbai and Thane, we observed that people were still apprehensive about being noticed while operating the machine. So this is an attempt to camouflage the process of buying a condom by providing other things too,” said Rajesh Nainakwal, partnership manager for HLFPPT.

The closest picture available on the web comes from Japan and with a bit of imagination the real multi-convenience CVM could easily be pictured.

Interestingly the launch of the campaign coincides with the monsoon as it is believed that “commercial sex sees a spurt during rainy season”.

Let’s hope Mumbai’s men cover themselves before going out…

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