Date:13/01/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/01/13/stories/2007011310200400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

AIDS test may be made must before marriage

Special Correspondent

Women health workers soon for villages

Women health workers to be paid Rs. 500 a month

Bangalore: The State Government is considering making the AIDS test mandatory before marriage, Health Minister R. Ashok said here on Friday.

Addressing the fifth anniversary of Karnataka Grameena Mahila Okkuta, he said the proposal under discussion was especially meant to help women who were often the unwitting victims of HIV-AIDS through spousal infection. There were five lakh people with AIDS in the State, he added.

Answering a series of questions raised by members of women's self-help groups (SHGs), Mr. Ashok said the Government was planning to appoint women health workers in all villages and they would be paid an honorarium of Rs. 500 a month.

Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, who dropped in at the last session, was at a loss for words when a SHG member asked him why there were no women in his Cabinet.