India to focus on children & youth in HIV/AIDS awareness drive
India’s Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss, was in New York recently where he was interviewed by Dan Thomas at the UNICEF House. Dr. Ramadoss spoke of the various HIV/AIDS awareness programmes targeted towards the youth – and in some instances by the youth. The Red Ribbon Express is one such unique programme. By Dan Thomas Visiting UNICEF House after a visit to the United Nations, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss said the Indian government accepts that HIV/AIDS is a big problem and it is determined not to let it spread into India in the same way as it has in parts of Africa. “We have a problem of HIV/AIDS and we accept it. We have been saying in all forums we don’t want to become another Africa,” Dr. Ramadoss said in an interview at UNICEF House. “And people now have started realizing the problem and the importance of this issue. And my Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has been very active in resolving the HIV issue,” he said. “We have a situation in India where the National AIDS Council is being chaired by a Prime Minister. So this shows the importance of the disease,” he said. Dr. Ramadoss stressed the importance of educating children and young people on the dangers of HIV and how to avoid it. “Our main focus is to prevent the children and young adults, (from HIV/AIDS) because they are the vulnerable section, the high risk group. And we have lined up a lot of programmes specifically for these children and young adults from 15 to about 25 years old,” he said.
“One key programme is the Red Ribbon Express – where four trains coming from four different corners of India will meet at the centre of India. These trains, carrying youth, will stop at all stations en route and complete the journey in six months. The young people aboard will go to all the villages surrounding the stations and educate people on HIV/AIDS through puppet shows, dramas, and skits. This will be a key event for us,” he added. Despite some cultural concerns in India, Dr Ramadoss said the government would promote the use of condoms. And he vowed to tackle the issue of stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS. “There is a lot of social stigma in India surrounding the affected people. At some workplaces, people have turned away from HIV patients. And some patients are being turned away too. So it is very distressing for the government. We are forced to enact legislation against discrimination,” he said. Dr. Ramadoss said programmes in India to prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to their children during birth or breast feeding had been successful and would be scaled up. “There has been a very sizeable reduction in children getting infected from mothers. Today we have about 300 centres in the country. And we plan to upscale it to about 10,000 to 20,000 centres in the days to come,” he said. “And UNICEF has been very actively coordinating on this front,” he added. “We have a very cordial relationship and partnerships with the UN as well as UNICEF. And it’s going to go a long way to prevent and in fact to eliminate this problem of HIV/AIDS in India.”
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