A bartender at India’s first condom bar in Chandigarh

New Delhi, July 1: Now, thicker and more romantic condoms.

India is gearing up to promote the use of condoms nationwide — with new packaging to get the decades-old Nirodh to catch up with the times, and extra-thick ones that won’t break while in use.

The third phase of the National AIDS Control Programme to be launched next week will aim at increasing annual condom usage in India from around 2.1 billion pieces now to 3.5 billion pieces by 2010, health ministry officials said.

The programme will also seek to triple the number of condom outlets to 3 million within the next three years. “We need to deepen the market, but access has always been a big issue — where do you get a condom late at night?” said Naco director general Sujatha Rao.

“We need more outlets — from gas stations to dhabas to railway stations.”

A proposed import of 1.5 million female condoms this year will also expand the female condom programme in the country, said Naco programme officer Mathew Joseph.

Nearly Rs 2,000 crore of the Rs 8,023 crore earmarked for the third phase of the AIDS control programme — to last from 2007 through 2012 — will be spent on coaxing Indians to use more condoms, officials said.

As part of this effort, the packaging of Deluxe Nirodh will change to “contemporarise it and make it look more youthful,” said Gopalakrishnan Manoj, chief executive officer of HIndustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust, an organisation helping Naco promote condoms.

“The packaging of Nirodh hasn’t changed in nearly two decades — it’s still the dull, yellow packet we had in the 1980s,” Mathew said.

The new package will have more colour and a sharper image. “The old image was a (couple’s) silhouette — and not very clear. We plan to replace this with a sharp picture using human models, in a special setting to romanticise the brand,” Manoj said.

In an attempt to address complaints about condoms breaking during action, extra-thick and stronger condoms will be produced, Mathew said. “People who may have experienced this problem could ask for the extra thick product.”