But today, almost a decade later, over 200 million pieces of both its products--Masti Condoms and Pearl Oral Pills--have been sold in the rural market. Says S K Bali, general manager (sales) at PSI and a former Pfizer man: ``While the government supplies of both free and priced Nirodh cater to the lowest segment of the market and brands like Kohinoor and Kama Sutra cater to the upper-end, there was no one to cater to the middle rung. This is where we stepped in and today, our brand is one of the largest selling rural brands.''

PSI's Masti Condoms has shown a sales growth of 96 per cent over last year with 23.8 million piece being sold. The condoms sold by PSI aresubsidised by the government under the social marketing scheme, where the product is meant to fill the gap between the cheaper varieties marketed by the government itself and the more expensive commercial products. The success of the social marketing scheme can be gauged by the fact that last year, while the government distributed 676 million free condoms, commercial condom sales were 204 million, and social marketing condoms sold over 325 million pieces.The condom market is growing at a rate of 15 per cent in all the sectors and health workers are very pleased with this fact. In this day of AIDS and rapidly increasing HIV infection rates, the growth of the condom market indicates an increased awareness about the disease, says Bali.

But do government and social marketing interests clash? Social marketing brands like Masti do not hamper the sales or free distribution of the government brand, Nirodh, says Bali. Though the priced varieties of Nirodh come in deluxe and super deluxe dispensations, Masti, too,has similar categories, priced differently--slightly higher than Nirodh. ``It is a harmonious balance between the two and there is no clash of interest,'' says Bali.

Social marketing has proved to be another boon in the distribution of the government supplies of the priced Nirodh. PSI, World Pharma and Hindustan Latex Ltd take care of the distribution of this product. Earlier, the distribution was done by some corporate organisations like Hindustan Lever, ICI and Lipton, who pulled out as there were few commercial gains in the venture.

Using social marketing, the government has been able to increase its supplies of the priced Nirodh to over 300 million pieces during the last decade.

Spurred by the success of its Masti Condoms, PSI also entered the oral pill market with Pearl. It retails one cycle of tablets at Rs 5, which is more expensive than the government brand, Mala-D, but cheaper than other commercial brands. Now, it also retails its own brand of oral rehydration salts (ORS), Neotral, for childrenwith diarrhoea.

``The infant death rate in the country because of diarrhoea is so high and can be cured so simply with ORS treatment, that we decided to make our product available in the rural towns,'' says Bali.

The success of social marketing has been big, but can social marketing agencies take over the government distribution system? ``No, while social marketing has been very successful with high sales, the reach of the government in remote areas can never be undermined,'' he says. Moreover, free supplies, too, are needed to cover a large section of society. The main advantage that social marketing has is that NGOs such as PSI have been able to integrate their social marketing activities with their AIDS/HIV prevention projects and then address broader issues of sex and reproductive health. And awareness generation has become that much easier as a result.