Hyderabad, March 09: With increasing number of women being infected by HIV, doctors at the Modern Government Maternity Hospital have called for an urgent, intensive awareness campaign in rural and urban areas to educate women on HIV/AIDS.
Osmania Medical College Doctors’ Forum on Monday organised a panel discussion on ‘Women and HIV/ AIDS’ at the hospital on the occasion of the International Women’s Day.
Dr S Sandhya Rani, programme coordinator, said there were five million HIV-positive people in India and 40 per cent of them were women. “Not only illiterate women, but the so-called educated women also lack proper knowledge about HIV/AIDS. The government should take initiative and create awareness among women and men on the killer disease,” she said.
“The ongoing government-sponsored HIV/AIDS awareness programmes focused primarily on high-risk groups such as commercial sex workers, homosexuals and truck drivers giving an impression among the other people that the disease is mostly confined to those groups,” was the concern expressed by Dr A Malathi Reddy.
Dr Ajay Mohan said HIV emerged as a major problem in India almost a decade after it plagued the rest of the world.
Response to the epidemic in the subcontinent has been hampered by several factors like social stigma, lack of awareness and the other competing priorities in a developing nation.
“Indian women are the silent victims in this epidemic because they do not have a respected voice in decision-making and prioritysetting by the government. The epidemic is increasingly affecting and infecting Indian women,” he lamented.
Dr P Anitha Reddy felt that the status of Indian women has placed them at extreme disadvantage as India is a country with socially progressive laws but conservative social norms.
—Agencies