Date:11/05/2003 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2003/05/11/stories/2003051101701100.htm

National

Steps to promote AIDS awareness

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI May 10. The Union Health Minister, Sushma Swaraj, today announced a package of measures to tone up the anti-AIDS programme in the country, by creating better public awareness of the various aspects of the disease and by streamlining the activities of NGOs involved in the programme.

The aim of the new strategy is to ensure that even while the fight against the disease is strengthened, the stigma attached to it is dispelled by removing various misconceptions associated with it.

A major highlight of the new strategy is a proposal to launch a high pitch nationwide campaign that would emphasise that unsafe sex was not the only risk factor and that there were other modes of transmission, such as use of unsterilised syringes and needles.

Posters, television programmes, and other traditional and modern means of communication would be used to disseminate "complete and correct'' information about the disease, Ms. Swaraj said.

On the NGOs front, the plan is to allocate specific areas of activities to each of them so that there was no overlapping and they adopted a focussed approach. In all, there are about 700 NGOs working in the field of AIDS in the country.

The package would also include measures to promote greater involvement of all Ministries and departments in creating public awareness through their field staff. For instance, sensitisation programmes could be organised for members of Panchayats as they were in direct touch with people at the grassroots level.

Announcing the package at a press conference at the end of a half-a-day conference of representatives of State AIDS control societies, Ms. Swaraj conceded that there were "gaps'' in the anti-AIDS programme in the country and said the aim of the new strategy was to fill by adopting a focussed, holistic and integrated approach.