Kashmir sex-workers exposed to HIV infection

[Guest guest]

Kashmir sex-workers exposed to HIV infection

Anju Munshi

Part-II

In a region marked by difficult terrain that limits accessibility to existing

healthcare, there are just a few hospitals - SMHS, Lal Ded, Sher-e-Kashmir

Institute of Medical science, Bone and Joint Hospital, Government Medical

College, SMGS Hospital, Batras and G.B. Pant - which test blood for HIV.

Unfortunately, all of them are in Srinagar and Jammu. None of the district and

sub-district hospitals leave alone the camps have this facility.

Given this scenario counseling and awareness are the need of the hour. Dr M.A.

Wani, Project Director, Jammu and Kashmir Aids Preventive Control Society

(JKAPCS), says, " Mass awareness must be generated about the disease and its

preventive measures, which is the best strategy to tackle the menace. "

He adds, " Even though the state lies in the low prevalence zone, it does not

mean that the threat of HIV/AIDS is any less here. "

Contrary to government complacency, an independent study conducted by

Jammu-based clinical immunologist, Anil Mahajan, states that HIV/AIDS is no

longer a low-prevalence disease in the state. The study reveals that

paramilitary forces, truck drivers, housewives, and camp inmates are the groups

most affected.

Given the topography and numerous local dialects and languages, Mahajan

acknowledges that it is challenging to conduct even minor awareness campaigns

like showing films and staging cultural programmes.

There's another hurdle too. " Existing NACO (National AIDS Control Organization)

guidelines do not provide costing and implementation of the Targeted

Intervention (TI) programme for migrant labourers in a systematic manner. They

constitute the second highest risk group in J & K, " explains Wani.

Even though Panabaaka Lakshmi, J & K's Minister of State for Health & Family

Welfare, had said that Phase III of the National AIDS Control Programme has been

formulated to control the spread of HIV by up-scaling TI among the high risk

groups, there is not much evidence of this in the camps.

Tragically, the region has not benefited from international assistance either.

The much-publicised visit of French Countess Albina du Boisrouvray of the

charity, Francois Xavier Bagnoud (FBX), as part of the French President Nicolas

Sarkozy's delegation to India, has also failed to benefit the state, even while

West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Mizoram and Manipur have been assisted. A lack of

funds could not have been the reason for this, considering that FXB's India

budget for the 2008 calendar year amounts to US$1.3 million.

According to Dr Chowdhury, the man behind Shriya Bhatt Mission Hospital and

Research Centre at Jammu, which addresses the health problems of displaced

Kashmiris, HIV/AIDS cases in the camps, if any, could go unreported because of

the fear of stigma and discrimination.

The health department in Kashmir needs to do more than just put the burden on

the religious scholars, as it tends to do. Sikh religious leaders and Imams

(Muslim priests) in the Valley still don't know the exact causes of HIV/AIDS nor

indeed the difference between the two.

Perhaps the government could learn a lesson or two from the army, which has

taken the initiative to conduct workshops on HIV/AIDS at the basic unit level as

well as higher up, at the Northern Command level, to educate its officers and

their families about the disease. The government now needs to get its act

together on the issue in the interest of the vulnerable women in the

camps.(Courtesy: Women's Feature Service)

http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2008/07/24/news0563.htm