|
The Union Health & Family Welfare Minister, Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss had a one-on-one meeting with the UN Secretary General Mr. Kofi Annan here today. The two leaders later had a Round Table discussion on “Positive Voices Against HIV AIDS”. Among the participants were six representatives of Indian Network of People Living with HIV AIDS. Other participants included Ms. Elizabeth Selhore, Executive Director of Sahara, Dr. Sunil Mehra, Executive Director of MAMTA Health Institute for Mother and Child and Laxmi Bai, Secretary of the Dai Welfare Society. The UN Secretary General called for strategy to deal with the human face of HIV & AIDS and said that the purpose of convening Round Table was to listen to the participants and hear their views. He posed three questions to the participants on areas relating to creation of new environment for dealing with stigma and discrimination, innovative experiences that NGOs have had in dealing with stigma and discrimination and experience of people living with networks on awareness raising, prevention and care. The participants in the Round Table were forthright on the need to reduce the stigma and discrimination. Some of them also put forward the need for legislation against discrimination and cell to document and respond to human right violation. They also stressed the need to include people living with HIV AIDS in equal partnership and income generation programmes.
Responding to the suggestion, the Union Health & Family Welfare Minister said that in India AIDS was not merely a health issue but a developmental issue and was soon to become an economic issue. He said that the Government was concerned about the stigma and discrimination. Briefing the participants on the recommendations of the Parliamentary Youth Forum on HIV & AIDS which had come up with the draft legislation against stigma, he said that the Law Ministry was in the process of drafting a legislation against this evil and it is expected to be in place by the end of the year.
On Free Anti-Retro Viral Treatment, he said soon, 100,000 people would be extended ART and the hospitals would be increased from 25 to 100. He also said that they were working on the Inter-Ministerial and Intra-Ministerial Coordination so that the issue of AIDS awareness can be included in the school curriculum and also for awareness creation in the workplace.
EK/SK/AMA
|
