There are hundreds of branded cosmetics products in the markets of Kushtia. From small shops to malls, everyone has a range of products labeled under renowned brands. However, most of these products are contraband, substandard, or fake.
An ordinary customer would not be able to differentiate between a genuine product and a fake one. Unscrupulous traders are making quick bucks by selling these substandard products without due monitoring from regulatory agencies.
Meanwhile, people are buying these fake cosmetics at high prices without realizing that they are not made by the brands that are mentioned on the products. As a result, the customers are being deceived and are at risk of great health hazards.
The shops in the district sell a range of cosmetics products starting from brightening cream to soap and shampoo. However, most of these foreign products do not have the importer's hologram on the packaging. Local traders are claiming that hawkers from different areas come and take orders for these products two to three days a week. Then they supply these cosmetics in the markets.
In this regard, a wholesaler named Fazlur Rahman said that every wholesaler has a shop in Kushtia. They bring goods from Dhaka and sell them in Kushtia. Now the Indian border is completely closed. Therefore, no goods are coming in the illegal channels. As a result, all that are coming to Kushtia are from Dhaka.
Regarding the branded products he admitted that the products are not genuine and are fake. They are sold at Chawkbazar in Dhaka. However, not all the shoppers sell these fake products, he claimed.
Border Guard Bangladesh was contacted in this regard and they said that although they are confiscating drug consignments regularly, they have not caught smugglers with cosmetics in recent times.
Nusrat Jahan, a college student, said: “I often see advertisements of foreign products online and I order them. I also buy from the local shops. But I cannot tell which one is real and which one is fake.”
Another student named Mima Akhter said foreign cosmetics are used along with locally-made cosmetics. But there is no way to recognize a fake product just by looking at them, she added.
Sujan Ali, a local market cosmetics seller, said: “We have to sell our products according to the demand of the customers. Now many people come and want foreign cosmetics. Again they order different foreign cosmetics by showing us pictures of them from the internet. These products include items from India, Thailand, and Myanmar.”
Suchandan Maondal, assistant director of the Kushtia office of the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNRCP), said: “The foreign cosmetics that we get in the markets of the district often do not have the hologram of the importers. If a cosmetic product is imported legally, the sticker of the importer is affixed with it.”
Mandal said that the Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institute (BSTI) has laboratory facilities where these products can be tested.
Dipankar Kumar Dutta, field officer of BSTI Kushtia regional office, mentioned that these products come from Dhaka’s Chawkbazar and Jinjira.
Cancer specialist Dr Tauchifur Rahman said that the presence of harmful chemicals in fake cosmetics is increasing the health risk of the general people. These harmful chemicals can pose serious health hazards even for adults, he added.
