Pakistan once won the iodized salt battle. We are now losing it.
Many Pakistanis will remember the “Handi, ka Nishan” campaign.
A simple visual cue. A powerful public-health idea.
It worked.
By the mid-2010s, iodized salt had reached about one-third of households — a major achievement in preventing iodine deficiency, especially for children and pregnant women.
But the latest PSLM / HIES data tells a worrying story:
📉 Iodized salt use has fallen from 31% (2015) to 18% (2025)
📈 Simple / rock / sea salt has risen from 68% to 82%
In other words, a decade of progress has quietly reversed.
This raises uncomfortable questions:
Did enforcement weaken once the campaign faded?
Did “pink”, “rock”, and “natural” salts crowd out science?
Did we assume behaviour change, once achieved, would sustain itself?
Public health wins are not permanent.
They require continuous signaling, regulation, and reminders.