India first in South Asia to implement animal testing ban

News of the complete ban has been secured in India following ongoing campaigning and lobbying by Indian Members of Parliament and State Assemblies and the Humane International Society.

The approval will now mean that any manufacturer interested in testing new cosmetic ingredients or finished products must first seek approval from India’s Central Drug Standards Control Organisation and the use of modern non-animal alternative tests also becomes mandatory, replacing invasive tests on animals.

“A manufacturer will be given approval to test only after complying with the BIS non-animal standards.”​

Following the announcement, Indian Member of Parliament Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda says however, there is still work to be done; “This is a great day for India and for the thousands of animals who will no longer suffer, yet our government must go a step further by banning cosmetics products that are tested on animals abroad and then imported and sold here in India​.”

The next step for the Indian government therefore will be to achieve a follow-up ban on selling cosmetics newly tested on animals in other parts of the world and preventing companies from outsourcing testing to third countries and importing the animal-tested beauty products back into India for sale.

Pressure on China now to follow suit​

By no means resting on its laurels, the Humane Society International alongwith Chinese NGOs and academic scientists, LUSH and Chinese pop singer Wang Feifei, are now calling for China to end its mandatory testing of cosmetics on animals.

LUSH and Urban Decay have so far declined to sell in mainland China until the animal test requirements are removed, but most other market-leading cosmetics companies do, meaning they submit to animal testing.

Since Europe’s sales ban on newly animal-tested cosmetics came into force in March this year, it is illegal for international and Chinese brands to sell any newly animal-tested cosmetic products in the European Union, still the largest beauty market in the world.