AIDS education for Punjab students

August 10, 2004

AIDS education for Punjab students:

Chandigarh, Aug 8(ANI):

It's a classroom with a difference. The teenage students of the DAV

school in Kurali near Chandigarh are among the several thousands in

Punjab to be educated on the dreaded HIV virus courtesy a new in

their curriculum.

Under the scheme as many as 1800 schools, spread over 15 districts

in the states would be covered in two phases to provide basic

knowledge about HIV infection and its effects

Though there are doubts as to how successfully the effort would take

off considering the diversity in social customs in a state like

Punjab, the Punjab state Aids Control society is optimistic that

there efforts would not go in waste.

" Education regarding sexual health is very important and I have seen

that students are putting very good questions and very frankly they

give their queries. They write questions on paper and we don't ask

them to write their names, and we reply to all those queries " , Dr. G

S Chahal, assistant project director, Punjab State Aids Control

Society was quoted as saying.

All this comes in the wake in increase of number of AIDS cases the

state has recently witnessed with as many as 100 deaths since 1992.

Reports indicate that as many as four thousand HIV positive cases

have been registered in Punjab since 1992, a majority of them from

the rural areas of the state.

Officials believe that imparting education to the students would go

a long way in creating awareness among the people and to a great

extent help in curbing the spread of the disease.

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