**********************************************************
SAATHII Electronic News Letter
HIV NEWS FROM INDIA

SOURCE: The Statesman, www.kanglaonline.com, The Times of India and
The Indian Express.

Posted on: 03/02/2006

COMPILED BY: B.Vilasini and L Ramakrishnan
SAATHII Chennai office

Note: this compilation contains news items about HIV/AIDS
published in the Indian media, as well as articles relevant to
HIV/AIDS in India published internationally. Articles in this
and previous newsletters may also be accessed at
http://www.saathii.org/orc/elibrary

==============================================================================

1. Women in Sikkim lack AIDS awareness.
The Statesman, January 30, 2006.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=10&theme=&usrsess=1&id=104846

2. Leaders Who Follow.
www.kanglaonline.com, January 31, 2006.
http://www.kanglaonline.com/index.php?template=headline&newsid=1188&typeid=0

3. Alang migrant workers unleash HIV crisis.
The Times of India, January 31, 2006.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1393618.cms

4. UN funds to battle AIDS in city.
The Indian Express, February 01, 2006.
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=167990

==============================================================================

1. Women in Sikkim lack AIDS awareness.
The Statesman, January 30, 2006.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=10&theme=&usrsess=1&id=104846


Gangtok: The summary findings of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS),
for Sikkim have revealed the lack of awareness about AIDS among the Sikkimese
women with only 54 per cent of them having some idea about the dreaded disease.

The survey was done for the first time in Sikkim, between 9 December, 1998 and
March 24, 1999 in the second phase of NFHS, under the ministry of health which
included samplings from 1,299 households. Sikkim was not included in the
nationwide survey conducted by the NFHS during the year 1992-93. Now, the
third phase of NHFS has given the due importance to AIDS and AIDS sampling has
been included as a part of the survey of 58 primary sampling units (villages)
in the four districts of the state.

The Mumbai-based organisation, International Institute of Population Sciences
(IIPS) which is the nodal agency for conducting the NFHS nationwide have
awarded the contract for conducting the survey in Sikkim to Economics
Information Technology (EIT), Kolkata.

The the coordinator of the Sikkim branch of EIT, Mrs Smiti B Gurung said:
"For Sikkim, we have a target to reach 1,868 women and 733 male from 1,972
households of 58 PSUs. The resource persons are being trained in Mumbai, Ooty
and Delhi and after the training, they will be guiding the recruits in turn.
The household listings will begin by February-end and the survey is expected
to be completed by June".

"This time, as per the directions of NFHS we will be also taking blood samples
from the targeted people which will undergo tests for AIDS later on,"
she added.
Around 40 graduates will be taken for the job of conducting the survey which
will be done district-wise, she informed. "Resource persons like Dr Chanda
Gurung who are undergoing training will be directing the survey," Mrs Gurung
said.

Meanwhile, some interesting facts have been highlighted about the housing
conditions and the standard of living of household members in the report book
of NFHS phase II, 1998-99 for the state. In the report, it is mentioned that
81 per cent of the households in Sikkim had electricity compared to the 60
per cent nationwide. Again, 85 per cent of them had drinking water facilities
in Sikkim compared to 78 per cent all India basis and 73 per cent in Sikkim
had toilet facilities compared to 36 per cent nationwide.

However, the most striking analysis mentioned in the report is that 79 per
cent male and 64 per cent female are literate starting from the age of six.
It is also mentioned in the report is that 61 per cent women in the state were
infected with one or other forms of anaemia.

==============================================================================

2. Leaders Who Follow.
www.kanglaonline.com, January 31, 2006.
http://www.kanglaonline.com/index.php?template=headline&newsid=1188&typeid=0


Imphal: The health minister, L Nandakumar, and the entire social welfare
department went unrepresented in the public hearing on people living with
HIV/AIDS yesterday. Quite obviously they would be citing other pressing state
matters that kept them away from the meet, but we all know this is likely to
be at best a half-truth, if not total falsehood, considering that yesterday
was a Sunday. The attitude is clear. The HIV/AIDS issues is still not
important enough for them to "waste" a leisurely Sunday morning on, not even
if Manipur is among the six states in India with alarming prevalence of the
deadly disease.

When world leaders are calling for a total commitment of all who can make a
difference in the fight against what must be one of the most dreaded pandemic
humankind has ever faced in history, our own brand of leaders think the issue
is too small for them to even spare a few hours of their time on a holiday.
Contrast this with how even a businessman like the Microsoft founder Bill
Gates has done by pledging 100 million dollars (equivalent of over Rs 450
crores) for the battle against AIDS in India, where, together with China, the
biggest explosions yet of the disease are predicted to happen in the not so
distant future.

Part of this money would have already gone in fighting the virus in Manipur
too. Everybody else thinks AIDS, wherever it occurs, is one issue that cannot
be swept under the carpet anymore, for ultimately it is everybody's interest
at stake. It is indeed a sad commentary on the calibre of leadership we have
that a foreigner has shown more concerned about the spread of the disease in
the state than our own leaders. Alas! When can we ever have leaders who lose
sleep over the plight of the state and its people and not just over the now
infamous 10 percent or whatever other cuts they are reputed to take from
statutory contracts they award their cronies. Let one thing be absolutely
clear.

Be it AIDS or underdevelopment or peace, without a total political commitment,
there can be no solution to any of them. And this commitment has been precisely
what was, and is, lacking in all these issues of extreme gravity.

Consider this scenario too. If tomorrow the Prime Minister or the Union home
minister were come to the state and say AIDS is where the priority must be,
no minister in the state would anymore miss any campaign function against the
disease. The importance attached to Central leaders flagging off state
projects is pushed to such absurd limits that today they want the foundation
stones of every government infrastructure to be laid by a Central leader.

The open message sent out to the people, perhaps unwittingly, is that our
leaders are leaders who can only follow and not lead or take initiatives. No
wonder, the idea of a puppet government, a derogatory reference underground
literatures have used with such damaging effects, has stuck in popular
imagination too. Have the state leadership totally lost their ability to
decide what is good or bad for the state and take decisions by themselves on
what courses of action are fit?

In yet another way, the ordinary people are left facing a difficult dilemma,
unable to decide who their leaders ought to be – the elected ones perpetually
fighting for ministerial berths and percentage cuts, or the self-appointed
ones whose chief instrument of power is subversion. The quest for a resolution
to much of our festering problems, including the all-important one of peace,
must begin from within this space where the dilemma has been tearing the
psyche of the entire people. The choices have never been made clear.

For what real choice can there be between corruption and violence? Between
deliberate official lethargy and rule by diktats and decrees? Between the
jester and the tyrant? Between draconian laws and lawlessness? Between those
who would steal and those who would destroy? In our situation, the solution
must have to be first about giving the people a clear choice. But what a
terrible irony it has been all the while that a crisis of leadership should
have so thoroughly condemned an entire people into such misery and hopelessness?

==============================================================================

3. Alang migrant workers unleash HIV crisis.
The Times of India, January 31, 2006.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1393618.cms


Alang: Long separation from the family, pathetic working conditions in
ship-breaking and recycling yards and comparatively good money are prompting
the large population of migrant workers to go to sex workers and thereby
increase the risk of contracting HIV infections.

This necklace-shaped shipbreaking yard on the western flank of Gulf of Cambay
is a home to thousands of migrants from Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar and Jharkhand.

"The migrant workers who live in the ship-breaking yards of Alang and Sosiya,
exhibit inclination to visit sex workers and thereby increase the risk of
contracting HIV infections," said Dr Niloo Vaishnav, chairman of Bhavnagar
blood bank.

"We conducted HIV sero survey of migrant workers of Alang ship breaking yards
from July 2004 to September, by taking samples of 2155 people. The results
indicated that 0.7 per cent of the people tested HIV positive," he said.

Vaishnav said, though the result is not alarming, what is a matter of concern
is their highrisk behaviour. If the number of HIV infections is less, it is
only because the sex workers whom they are visiting may not be having the
infection.

But, their behaviour is definitely a matter of concern and hence, we are
creating awareness among the workers," he added. The study was conducted under
the auspices of Project AIDS, Bhavnagar blood bank, which has been engaged in
AIDS education and prevention work in Alang for over 10 years, focusing on
reducing high-risk behaviour among the workers, Vaishnav said. "As with other
migrant work force, the HIV sero status of the Alang population was of special
interest," he added.

==============================================================================

4. UN funds to battle AIDS in city.
The Indian Express, February 01, 2006.
http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=167990


Pune: Here's good news for Pune on the AIDS front. The National AIDS Control
Organisation (NACO) has proposed comprehensive projects to better the quality
of care for HIV positive persons in various districts and states. As such, the
Pune City for AIDS Control Society (PCACS) will be among the first in the
State to receive grants from UNAIDS funding agency for a period of five years.

UNAIDS and Avert— an NGO working towards prevention of AIDS— have planned a
project in Pune, Dr Vishwananth Koliwad, associate project director of Avert
told Newsline. ''Initially, the project will be taken up in Pune to assess and
identify the needs for the city. The project will be later extended to other
districts in Maharashtra,'' said Koliwad.

Dr Rajeev Bamble, PCACS secretary said USAID will provide funds for the
five-year project and NGOs have been invited to apply for working towards
various components of the project. These include intervention measures for
children infected with HIV, migrant and hotel workers, widows infected with
HIV, street children, company workers and even targeting non-college groups.

Apart from the risk groups, others will also be taken in the programme as part
of the 'comprehensive' project. However, only preliminary discussions have
been held and decisions have to be taken whether to set up an umbrella
organisation to coordinate the project, Koliwad added.

The PCACS gets Rs 50 lakh from the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) for
creating awareness about AIDS, conducting counselling and advocacy programmes
apart from distributing condoms which are distributed to at least 3,413
commercial sex workers in Budhwar Peth, Bamble said.

==============================================================================

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in the above articles
are those of the respective newspapers, not those of
SAATHII.