Gujarat :Alang ship-breakers face AIDS-wreck with 38 HIV cases

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Alang ship-breakers face AIDS-wreck with 38 HIV cases

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ TUESDAY, MAY 06, 2003 01:26:12 AM ]

ALANG (BHAVNAGAR): Alang, Asia's biggest ship-breaking yard, could be

sitting on a ticking AIDS bomb, waiting to explode. There are so far

75 confirmed HIV cases reported at Bhavnagar's Sir T Hospital, the

only voluntary counselling and testing centre in the district. And,

the agencies active in Alang-Sosiya yard have identified 38 HIV cases

from Alang alone.

Dr Niloo Vaishnav, chairman of Bhavnagar blood bank, which runs

Project Aids Alang (PAA) with the help of Gujarat State Aids Control

Society (GSACS) says, " The incidence of HIV cases is very high in

Alang. Of the 3,500 people who have come for voluntary blood testing

in the last four years, nearly 38 of them have tested positive. "

According to GSACS officials, the cases recorded with them are only

those tested at government hospitals and the final figure could

certainly be much higher.

Dr Vaishnav said on the basis of these statistics, a projection

report carried out by an AIDS expert from New York-based Albert

Einstein School of Medicine, showed that the prevalence of the

infection could be as high as 5 per cent in Alang. This is perhaps

the highest prevalence of HIV anywhere in Gujarat.

Alang has a population of around 40,000 male migrant labourers coming

from Orissa, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Most of them leave

their families behind to come here to earn a living. Also, almost all

of them belong to the sexually active age group of 18-45 — around 39

per cent are between 18-25 years and 46 per cent belong to the 25-45

age bracket.

" The problem is compounded by the fact that there are very few women

in the area. This makes the area even more trouble-prone as far as

passing the infection is concerned, " says Mahesh Jani, project

officer of PAA.

According to him, besides a high occurrence of multiple partner

sexual activity, unorganised prostitution and rampant homosexuality

too are the important factors.

" It has been observed that sex workers from surrounding villages come

here, many of them under the pretext of selling vegetables, fruits

and other goods. But this is just a camouflage for their illegal

activity, " says Jani. According to a rough estimate, around 7.5 per

cent people who have come for voluntary blood tests suffer from

Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STD). The STD clinic in Alang gets

around 50-55 patients every week.

According to Y P Deulkar, port officer, besides spreading awareness,

the authorities should be given more teeth to curb prostitution. " The

area supposed to be guarded is a huge 10 square miles, which is

difficult with the existing number of hands, " he says. The police

station too does not have more than half-a-dozen personnel.

However, officials of the GSACS maintain that use of force will only

worsen the situation. " The situation could have been very bad without

timely intervention of the concerned agencies. But at present, it is

not alarming. The incidence of HIV positive cases surely is high in

Alang, but the use of force will only destroy the rapport which we

have created with the affected people and some sex workers over a

period of time, " says Dr D M Saxena, additional project director,

GSACS.

The society is planning to start an `Enabling Environment Project' in

Alang along with 10 other centres. " The programme funded by United

Nations Development Programme aims at helping the affected, " says R B

Deshmukh, project director, GSACS.

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