Acting as the self-obsessed superstar
Saroj Kumar in the Malayalam movie Udayananu
tharam, Sreenivasan demands that his costume should include 51 sunglasses,
a different one for every scene.
Sunglasses have signified upward social mobility
in Indian movies. It has endeared heroes to their fans. Rajinikanth not only
wore sunglasses, but also did sleight of hand with it.
That simple eye protection, with coloured
glass or plastic designed to cut off harmful rays from the sun, took a rather tragic
role recently with the death of Ilavarasan, the dalit boy whose marriage to Vanniyar
girl resulted in caste violence in Tamil Nadu. “They wear jeans, T-shirts and fancy sunglasses to lure girls from other
communities,” S. Ramadoss, the leader of Pattali Makkal Katchi reportedly
told the media months ago.
Among the three
items listed by Dr Ramadoss, his anger seems to be more with the sunglasses,
for he qualified it with “fancy.” With sunglasses being available from Rs 99 on
the pavements of every urban centre in the country to those costing thousands
of rupees in exclusive showrooms, it is difficult to know where he pegged “fancy”.
The political,
social and economic churn in the country in the past two decades has ensured
that more people can access aspirational products such as sunglasses. The
political realignment after the anti-Mandal Commission protests in 1990 ensured
that space was created for many sections that were till then unrepresented
politically.
The economic
liberalisation opened economic opportunities that were strengthened by the
growth of the information technology sector. With the IT and IT-enabled
services sector being ever-hungry for fresh graduates, students from smaller
urban centres and from lesser-known colleges had access to employment. Once
recruited into a reputed company, the graduate’s merit and street smartness were
more important than where he/she came from.
This means that
sunglasses are now accessible to anybody. What you feel about your neighbour’s son wearing
sunglasses depends on your perspective – “look how well he has done for
himself” or “look, he is getting too big for his boots.”
Missed out in all this is strong health
and environmental angle to sunglasses. The adverse health impacts of ultra
violet (UV) radiation from the sun was considered as an important point of
discussion in Agenda 21, the global environmental action plan that was agreed
upon at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED)
held at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil in June 1992. It asked the global community to
undertake research on increased UV radiation due to the depletion of the
stratospheric ozone layer and develop actions to reduce the adverse health
impacts.
In the two decades since the Rio Summit
the global community has taken effective action to reduce the emission of
ozone-depleting substances into the atmosphere. However, even with this decrease,
the recovery of the ozone layer is not predicted till the middle of the 21st
Century.
The World Health Organization (WHO)
established its Intersun programme in response to the Agenda 21 recommendation,
to provide scientific information and practical advice and guidance to reduce
health risks due to UV radiation. WHO estimates that worldwide 12 to 15 million
people become blind from cataracts annually, of which up to 20% may be caused
or enhanced by sun exposure.
These numbers will increase as the
stratospheric ozone layer continues to thin over the next decades, unless
people become aware of the hazards of UV radiation exposure, especially from
the sun. With 10% decrease in the total stratospheric ozone, an additional 1.6
million to 1.75 million cases of cataract are predicted worldwide every year.
Closer a location is to the equator,
higher is the UV radiation levels. More importantly, Intersun studies show that
darker skin provides no protection against ultra violet light affects on the
eye and the immunity system. This means that Indians, and other populations in
tropical countries, have a high chance of getting cataract due to UV radiation.
Intersun harmonised a global ultraviolet
index (UVI) to measure radiation, starting from low (values of 1 and 2),
moderate (3 to 5), high (6 and 7), very high (8 to 10) and extreme (11+). The
UVI for Chennai in the first week of July 2013 – when Ilavarsan’s death had
grabbed media and public attention – was 8 and southern Tamil Nadu 9. In
mid-August the UVI had moved to 10.
Similarly, higher the altitude greater is
the radiation, since the atmosphere becomes thinner to absorb UV. As a result,
UV levels increase by approximately 10% for every 1,000 metres in altitude.
Pilots and mountaineers have to wear sunglasses, not necessarily to attract
girlfriends or boyfriends.
The UV radiation is only likely to
increase in the years to come with climate change. Climate change is likely to
result in more frequent extreme weather events, including extremely hot periods
when the radiation would be higher. With increasing urbanisation there will be
greater reflection of UV radiation by concrete and asphalt.
The increase in greenhouse gases can lead
to changes in the temperature and circulation patterns in the stratosphere,
leading to decrease in ozone layer in the tropics and increase in the temperate
and polar regions. Since the health of the ozone layer has an indirect relation
to UV levels, this would mean increase in radiation in the tropical region – in
which much of peninsular India is located – in the years to come.*
Actor Sreenivasan’s intention in the
popular movie – for which he wrote the script – was to encourage the audience
to laugh at his character’s vanity. Having transcended from a small-time actor
to a superstar in a short time, Sreenivasan’s character uses his sunglasses to
declare that he has arrived. He is an aberration and thus evokes laughter.
Instead, considering the impact of UV
radiation in India, which is only going to get worse with climate change, there
should be far more people using protective sunglasses. If more people use
sunglasses it would be treated for what it is – a protective covering for the
eyes – and not a status symbol. No caste leader will then be able to invoke it
as a symbol for inciting violence.
* McKenzie RL, Aucamp PJ, Bais AF,
Björn LO, Ilyas M, Madronich S, (2011). Ozone depletion and climate change:
impacts on UV radiation. Photochem Photobiol Sci. 10(2):182-98.
