Targeting rural and tribal youth for HIV/AIDS awareness

Kalyan Singh Kothari
OneWorld South Asia

05 December 2007

Jaipur: A workshop, �Dissemination Workshop on HIV/AIDS Care and Prevention Programme for Rural and Tribal Youth in India�, was organised in Jaipur last month by VIHAN - Society for Child Development and Education in Rajasthan in association with Oxfam India and European Commission.

Delegates from various parts of the country, including 50 representatives from NGO sector of Rajasthan participated in the workshop. They were apprised of action plans implemented at the grassroots and experiences of activists working among the HIV-infected people. An exhibition of relevant publications and photographs was also organised on the occasion.

The workshop highlighted the programme initiated to address needs of high-risk groups such as men who have sex with men (MSM). About 1.3 lakh of the 6.5 lakh people, reportedly practicing homosexuality in Rajasthan, constitute a high-risk group. It was noted that the targeted intervention was covering less than one per cent of homosexuals and eunuchs.

Participants said that preliminary mapping of homosexuals and eunuchs carried out by the Rajasthan AIDS Control Society in 2005 should be used to properly assess their sexual health needs and facilitate implementation of targeted programmes.

Country director (Programme and Development) and Kolkatta Office director of Solidarity and Action Against the HIV Infection in India (SAATHII), Pawan Dhall said that primary focus of the workshop would be on ways to dispel the social stigma that hounds HIV/AIDS victims and their families.

Disclosing a study on homosexuals and eunuchs in Rajasthan carried out by SAATHII, Dhall said that the situational analysis had found that male-to-male sex in Rajasthan had a significant historical perspective and was far more common in both urban and rural areas than indicated by previous studies.

A multi-state study in 2004 of homosexual activity among rural Indian men aged 18-40 years had found 9.5% of single and 3.1% of married respondents having same sex encounters in the past year. If this data were extrapolated to the entire rural male population in the given age bracket in Jalore district, the number of MSM would far exceed the population of 1,400 mapped by the Rajasthan State Aids Control Society (RSACS) study for the whole state in 2005.

Dhall said to OneWorld South Asia that special attention was needed towards homosexual and Hijra youth, who were sexually more active. In rural Rajasthan sexual initiation is common also because of early marriages.

Dhall also pointed out that mining industry in Rajasthan employed a large number of migrants and should be considered as key stakeholders in the HIV response strategy for both migrant and MSM, Hijra and other transgender population.

M.L. Jain, director of Public Health of Government of Rajasthan, said the prevalence of HIV infection unless controlled immediately, would take away a major chunk of budgetary allocation for the health sector in Rajasthan.

VIHAN coordinator Dr Kumkum Srivastava, throwing light on a project executed with the support of European Union in Bharatpur and Chittorgarh districts, said training programmes were organised for 14,000 elected representatives of panchayats and government officials to make them sensitive to the needs of AIDS patients.

Dr Rajiv Dua, Global HIV/AIDS programme advisor of Oxfam, said that the mass communication campaigns launched among sex workers, youngsters consuming drugs and vulnerable sections such as truck drivers and migrant labourers had started showing positive results in terms of an increase in awareness.

User comments

"HIV affects all communities, some more than others"

Author: Pawan Dhall

Time: 11.12.2007 20:03

Comment: Hadrain Davic has made a valid point. HIV affects all sections of society, it is not a "homosexuals' disease", and surely it is only one of the health and development problems faced by LGBT people. Yet current data, also endorsed by UNAIDS, shows that HIV prevalence rates among men who have sex with men are far higher than the overall prevalence rates. This is true not only of Asia, but also countries like USA and Australia. This is the point I had tried to make, but possibly the information I provided has been misinterpreted (. . . sexually more active).

It is also true that there has been a recent downward estimation of HIV prevalence figures in India. Even then the figures of people affected are not to be taken lightly. Especially by those of us who belong to LGBT communities, whether we work in NGOs or not, and who have been seeing their friends and colleagues die because of AIDS. Talking about LGBT issues and HIV together is indeed a double edged sword. But as long as certain sections of society face a strong stigma, HIV too will affect them more. In such a situation, conflating same sex sexualities and HIV is certainly wrong, but not talking about them in conjunction will be worse.

"HIV- A homosexual disease!!!"

Author: Hadrain Davic

Time: 07.12.2007 15:23

Comment: "Dhall said to OneWorld South Asia that special attention was needed towards homosexual and Hijra youth, who were sexually more active. In rural Rajasthan sexual initiation is common also because of early marriages."

This is something which one comes across from the AIDS NGOs in India. But on what basis they are saying that homosexual youth are sexually more active? The international funding agenda plays a major role in this I feel. HIV is not a homosexual disease. But people try to make it like that, by connecting two victimhoods together. And the earstwhile lgbt rights groups are today talking of HIV pandemic, while making it a homosexual disease. Earlier UN has declared how the number of HIV patients have been exaggerated.

Also HIV need to be seen as a human rights issue, and the society needs to be counselled for dealing with it. It is a social disease, rather than of a community.