NACO seek help from churches to create aids awareness

To tackle the escalating cases of HIV/AIDS in the Northeastern states of India, the government took a deliberate action by approaching the church to create awareness among the youths about safe sex and the use of condoms.

"The church has so far not accepted the need to promote condoms and have not come out in the open. But we are holding continuous dialogues with them and have suggested that they should not deny information about promoting safe sex and use of condoms," director general of National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) Sujatha Rao said on Friday.

Due to the high HIV/AIDS prevalence rates in Nagaland and Manipur, which is the highest in the country, Rao said, the church can play a very vital role in abrogating the deadly disease. She apparently noted that the church was not hostile to their dialogue in the Northeast and is ready to collaborate.

The national HIV prevalence rate is 0.36 per cent, while it is 1.7 per cent in Manipur and 1.4 per cent in Nagaland.

"Informally, they agree with us because they see the reality of youth dying of aids," Rao told reporters after the launch of the joint programme on HIV and AIDS prevention and care in the Northeast States of India here.

Rao also conjectured that, without the help of the Church, it would be a difficult task to accomplish and hence the government wants the Church to involve in their programme.

"We are holding dialogues with them and we are confident that they will come round as they are seeing that youngsters are wasting their lives away," she said.

"We want to make them partners in our social movement as our aim is to save the lives of the youth as the infection is now spreading through heterosexual route and not just by the Injected Drug Users (IDUS)," Rao said.

She said the church preaches about abstinence and being faithful to one’s partner, "We just want to them to also articulate about the use of condoms and being careful in their relationship."

On how the joint programme would help them, Rao said, Australia is a leader in the area of DU management and hence they could give training to peer educators, outreach workers and nurses. “With their help we could prepare a training module to tackle the problem,” she concluded.

NACO`S budget for the northeast to fight HIV/AIDS is Rs 93 crore.