Guest guest Posted November 26, 2008 Report Share Posted November 26, 2008 Dear Colleagues, The Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, jointly with NACO and UNAIDS, is working on a comprehensive strategy for HIV programming with the Central and State Police Forces across the country. The strategy, besides addressing vulnerability reduction of personnel emphasizes proactive support by police to Government and NGO initiatives on HIV prevention especially with most-at-risk populations, viz sex workers, MSMs and IDUs. An important element of the this strategy is the designation of Nodal Officers for NGO Coordination at the State and District levels to interface with civil society for HIV prevention initiatives. The Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India has shown an extraordinary commitment to the National response to HIV by introducing this unique intervention. At almost no cost, this ensures long term coordination between police and civil society in an institutionalized manner for supporting communities with prevention, treatment, care and support services and in achieving the targets of universal access. This intervention by the Ministry removes the administrative cost of setting up initiatives by officers locally. As well as demonstrating the positive contribution of the police, the measure will go a long way in assisting NGOs, not only in HIV prevention, but in other social programmes such as in the response to child abuse and violence against women. You will be happy to know that in an effort to institutionalize the coordination between these Nodal Officers and the NGOs, we have planned commemoration of World AIDS Day 2008 in each district and at the state level by a simple event involving NGOs and Police officers and men in the Police lines or other suitable venue. To facilitate this commemoration at the state and district level, we have sent IEC materials to each district headquarters in the country. The programme will include a screening of the short film " Saavdhaan " (http://www.unaids.org.in/new/displaymore.asp?page=1 & pagenav=title & subitemkey=84\ \ 9 & subchkey=126 & itemid=525 & chname=Knowledge%20Centre & subchnm=), which contains all essential messages on HIV prevention and fighting stigma related to the disease. (This film has been jointly produced by Border Security Force and UNAIDS and was released by the Union Home Minister on World AIDS Day 2007 http://www.unaids.org.in/new/displaymore.asp?subitemkey=703 & itemid=484 & subchnm= & \ \ subchkey=0 & chname=Events ..) The screening will be followed by a discussion on how police and civil society can work together for implementing various social legislations and addressing issues like child abuse and violence against women. We request you to kindly inform your NGO partners in the field to get in touch with the district Superintendents of Police and participate in the WAD commemoration to further the agenda of an effective response to the epidemic. Should you need any additional information, please let us know. (Sarita Jadav jadavs@... +91-11-41354545; Ranjan Dwivedi dwivedir@... +91-9810505068) Best regards, Ranjan PS. Read feature story on India's Police support to community AIDS responses http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/Resources/FeatureStories/archive/2008/2\ \ 0081110_India_police_support.asp Ranjan Dwivedi Technical Advisor, UNAIDS A2/35 Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi, India-110029 Tel :+91-11-41354545 Ext 317 Fax :+91-11-41354534 e-mail: dwivedir@... Web: www.unaids.org.in www.ngogateway.org Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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