HIV/AIDs
INDIA '97:
a step away from
the 21st century,
- By 2000 AD, India will be home for 25% of the world’s HIV population
- India is presently estimated to have 3-5 million HIV+ persons
- A Mumbai study shows that I out of 10 AIDs patients is a housewife.
‘For the person who contracts it, HIV/AIDS is devastating. Do we really need to punish them further with our prejudices and apathy?’
Heterosexual transmission accounts for almost 80% of the HIV infections in India. Yet, the land of the Kama Sutra continues to live in a state of denial. We might have got rid of colonialism , but Victorian mores continue to dictate our response to sexual issues. When an educational seminar recommended that sex education should be introduced in Indian schools, the Vice Chancellor of an Indian university responded: Lets educate our illiterates first; we can talk of sex education later.
HIV/AIDS is still seen by many Indians as a Foreign disease. People still talk of mandatory HIV testing of isolating people living with HIV/AIDS of driving those *#@! sex workers out of town. Very, very few people talk of promoting responsible behaviours, about safe sex practices. Not surprisingly, WHO estimates that by the 2000 AD, India will be home to 25% of the world HIV+ population.
SAMUHA believes
...that HIV/AIDS information must be disseminated to make people aware....that counselling services must be disseminated to make people to change/modify their behaviour...that backup services must ensure the availability of STD clinics, condoms, tested blood products, disposable syringes, to reinforce changed behaviours
SAMUHA works towards controlling the spread of HIV through SAMRAKSHA, a resource group that it has setup to work exclusively for this purpose. SAMRAKSHA means ‘self-protection’
