Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

By Arun Nehru

There are few holidays in 'coalition' Governments and as the Government completes six months let us look at the current formations both within the ruling coalition .....more

Unfair Non-proliferation practices

By Atul- Tushar

Inaugurating the construction of the 500 MW, Rs 3500 crore Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (which will start generating electricity in 2010) at Kalapakkam, .....more

Will Pakistan stop drug trafficking ?

By B L Kak

New Delhi and Islamabad have just begun to set the stage for a 'crucial' round of talks between the two sides on the operational . .......more

Battle against AIDS: Hard Task ahead

By Arvinder Kaur

As of today, 38 million are living in the world with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the causative agent of AIDS infection. More than 20 million with HIV/AIDS have died .........more

EDITORIAL

Fratricidal wars

Now that the Ambani brothers are washing their dirty linen in the public, one can only recall the fate of such fratricidal wars in the past. One can’t really say who is at fault in this case. In fact, the people at large are not fond of going into details either. Some will dismiss it as a family affair. A few may not be averse to deriving vicarious pleasure from the delicious details of a drama. The majority will certainly be worried about how it will impact one of the most reliable shares in the stock market. For, more than the brothers their concern is about the money they have invested in them in the trust that they will carry forward their rich legacy. We have seen similar fights right from the days of Mahabharata. Vibhishana walked out on elder brother Ravana unable to bear with his amorous a nd greedy ways. Hardly anybody believes that Vibhishana had made the wrong move. He gave the correct advice to his brother but when he found it had fallen on deaf ears he took the next best step: he just broke away to side with what he — and all of us agree till today — was right. Still one can’t understand the genesis of the Hindi idiom: ‘ghar ka bhedi Lanka dhaye’ (insider-turned-spy demolishes Lanka). Is this not an unkind cut so far as Vibhishana is involved? Actually he had struck a note of caution that Lanka would cease to exist because of the wrongdoings of its ruler. Look at the ways of the world. He has the accusing finger turned against him instead. Only if Ravana had not been haughty and paid attention to his younger brother he would not have come to grief. Some times the phrases are coined out of context. On the whole Mahabharata in itself is an epic of quarrels between cousins assuming the dimension of a full-scale war. If we look at the history we will find th at the trend has continued. If it is not the pelf it is the desire for power that is at the heart of most of the feuds. There are several examples of royalties coming to an end because of brotherly disputes. The Mughal dynasty itself is a case in point. Aurangzeb may have vanquished all his relatives to ascend to the throne but willy-nilly he also paved the way for the ouster of the family regime. One of the most-publicised family plays after Independence has been Maneka Gandhi driving out of her mother-in-law Indira Gandhi’s house. It was a political battle between the unequals and has spilled over to the next generation. Even before the creation of Chhattisgarh the Shukla brothers — S.C. and V.C. — had lost their clout after they fell apart nursing individual ambitions of outwitting each other in the race for the coveted office of the Chief Minister. In our State there has been a tussle between Farooq Abdullah and his brother-in-law G.M. Shah stripping the Sheikh family of so me of its sheen.

There are a host of other instances of the encounters within the same family motivated purely by power play. It is only when rivalries are based on principles there remains the likelihood of a patch-up. Such occurrences are but extremely rare. It is not possible for every one to understand the range and depth of human emotions and adjust one’s conduct accordingly. If that happens one would achieve one’s goal easily without offending the feeling of close relatives. In real life, however, human beings don’t show much patience and, hence, end up gunning for one another

UPA Govt's six months

By Arun Nehru

There are few holidays in 'coalition' Governments and as the Government completes six months let us look at the current formations both within the ruling coalition and the opposition. The Congress lose out to NCP in Maharashtra and Sharad Pawar plays for the future within the coalition and clearly if we talk of the Third Front then the NCP leader is a major player. The Congress try to clip his wings but this is easier said than done = he controls political power and assets in the West and as the Congress tries to expand its base beyond the 145 mark and 'partners' feel threatened the influence of Sharad Pawar will increase. The issue of Telengana is supported by the NCP and the implications are obvious as the TRS and JMM get involved and never forget the numbers game in a 'coalition' = the recent Cabinet expansion was to protect 10 seats [JMM/TRS] but clearly the Telengana issue negates the Congress aim to placate the TRS leader with a Cabinet post instead of a separate state and the JMM leader with the lucrative Coal portfolio so that the CM's post is left to the Congress! The NCP have 9 MP's and with this 10 from the TRS/JMM the government can go on a long vacation! Lalu Yadav flexs his power as he comes under attack from Ram Vilas Paswan who is wooed by almost everyone = he gets 'assets' of the Steel and Fertiliser ministry from the Congress and this he will 'never' leave and Lalu Yadav knows this but the Congress allow Ram Vilas to be aggressive to contain and control Lalu Yadav who cannot yield political power to either the Congress or the LJP = Mulayam Singh/ Nitesh provide the confusion whilst the BJP inch forward with the JD[U] in confusion. A certain victory for the RJD becomes doubtful unless he compromises seats and influence to the Congress/LJP within the state. The Congress muscle in the JMM leader to yield the CM'S post but then Shibu Soren can go anywhere in the future. Look at the coalition distribution of 'assets'[Cabinet portfolio] to the DMK/PMK/JMM/TRS/NCP/LJS and look at the 'tantrums' that take place when asset allocation is not in proper order = we have seen the DMK/JMM/TRS/LJS/NCP reaction in the past and things will not improve in the future.

The Congress distributes Cabinet rank posts, appoints Governor's and rewards social activists and retired officials and most of the beneficiaries are chosen by Sonia Gandhi for past services and the relentless lobby for posts continues and the coalition partners get nothing and here again the NCP raise objections for the 'future' as alternative power centers sprout everywhere as the access and loyalty games continue and crores are spent to support the view that power rests with Sonia Gandhi and family members who stays away from 'accountability' but are clearly a extra constitutional authority! Few protest when the going is good but this can become a very serious issue in the future as few in any section of the electorate or voting public believe that the PM has any power or muscle in the political field. The reality of these appoints are that there is little political value in all this as those adjusted are 'loyal' and those who do not make it are 'hostile' and the latter numbers are always in excess of the 'former'.

The NDA show signs of aggression and as things stand the BJP in particular has to get things in proper order. The defeat in the Lok Sabha elections is now in the past and clearly the lessons of a fractured verdict should be clear and the game for the future for any political party in excess of 125 seats must be to make effective alliances with allies and no one will identify and align with extreme views and clearly the VHP line appeals to a very small minority. Harsh words and acts do not generate votes and whilst there can be a 'reaction' vote for a particular election this cannot be taken for granted. The reality is that the UPA government and the coalition struggle is helping the BJP/Allies. The AP situation is grim and I think the TDP and Chandra Babu are clearly on the 'return' and in Orissa , Navin Patnaik consolidates and Mamata and the TC gain in West Bengal as the CPI[M] are very much a part of the governance on economic issues and street protests have little meaning when Central leaders agree to increased prices and taxes. TN and Maharashtra show signs of change in alignments and things in Karnataka are chaotic as the Congress/JD[S] struggle to govern. The BJP like the Congress have problems as the Jharkhand government is racked by internal dissensions and it will take more than a miracle to win the Assembly election. Rajasthan looks stable but the Congress challenge hardens but things in MP despite the local election victory need correction and the Uma Bharti episode did not help and the party position in UP/Bihar/Haryana/Punjab/J&K is very poor. The BJP governed for six years and perfected the art of power sharing but forgot this in the Lok Sabha elections in 2004 and as we have seen by hindsight it was the coalition structures and numbers which resulted in victory or defeat and not individual 'charisma' or National issues = the 'key' is acceptable politics and clearly in this 'extreme' political views and violence in any form is not acceptable. Look at the recent Assembly elections in Maharashtra where the ruling coalition lost 11% of the popular vote but still won the elections = the BJP allies have little in Haryana where the Congress will sweep, will lose Jharkhand to the JMM/Congress but have a fighting chance in Bihar if Lalu Yadav runs into coalition problems with the Congress/LJS in Bihar. The BJP have spent the last six months in 'internal' turmoil instead of looking into the ruling party and its allies and there are issues and more issues and the big weakness continues to be 'asset distribution' and generation of political funds and the ruling party is always at a disadvantage in this field as politics is very much a family business in most political formations barring the Left.

Unfair Non-proliferation practices

By Atul- Tushar

Inaugurating the construction of the 500 MW, Rs 3500 crore Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor (which will start generating electricity in 2010) at Kalapakkam, 60 km from Chennai on October 23 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh hit the nail on the head when he said : 'Constraining those (in nuclear application) who are responsible amounts, in effect, to rewarding those are irresponsible'. He was also right in debunking 'the limitations of the present non-proliferation regime' which were further accentuated by restrictions on genuine peaceful nuclear application. For too long India is being cornered into signing non-proliferation and test ban regimes in the name of global disarmament even as the 'nuclear haves' led by the United States show the least inclination to reduce their own huge nuclear inventory and tackle the problem of proliferation sincerely and squarely.

The Prime Minister was quite forthright in expressing India's disappointment over 'technology denial' in the field of nuclear electricity even though India, unlike its western neighbour, has not exported the nuclear know-how and other material help to 'rogue' nations within the knowledge of the champions of non-proliferation and self-appointed guardians of 'peace and disarmament'. The Prime Minister assured the world that India would--as it always has- do all it can to observe nuclear safeguards. For almost two decades India has been doing that, even when it had become evident that the proliferation activities- almost a trade- of India's western neighbour was being deliberately overlooked by the non-proliferation movement. Ayatollahs in Washington and elsewhere. It had become a matter that threatened the country's security.

The Prime Minister's veiled reference to the US and the West for 'rewarding the irresponsible' was timely as it coincided with the news that, not satisfied with blacklisting two Indian nuclear scientists on imginary grounds, the US was planning to add a few more Indian names and entities to that list. Officially, the news was denied. It was also said that the issue did not come up during discussions between Indian and US officials, the latter led by Christina Rocca. But that need not induce the belief that US prejudices and discrimination against India's nuclear programme is going be a thing of the past.

In fact, Rocca's visit had a mystifying element to it as she had come to Delhi after spending three days in the northern extreme area in Pakistan, part of the original state of Jammu and Kashmir, before coming down to Islamabad for official level talks and the mandatory meeting with the Pakistani dictator, Gen Pervez Musharraf. The official explanation that she had combined business with pleasure on the Pakistani leg of her visit to the sub-continent makes little sense when US citizens are advised to avoid visiting those very areas where she was allegedly holidaying.

There is a reason to believe that the US action against two Indian nuclear scientists was taken to show how 'even-handed' the US remains in its dealings with the two countries in the sub-continent. It could also be seen as a US gesture to mollify the hurt Pakistanis who were both humiliated and upset when the Americans could no longer help but expose the long thriving nuclear market in Islamabad, run by Pakistan's so-called father of the atom bomb, A Q Khan. Pakistan was also shown to be harbouring a number of nuclear scientsts with established Al Qaeda links who were 'removed' from their posts only under US pressure.

Many will recall that at time the frustrated and flustered Pakistanis had alleged that the Iranian nuclear programme had received Indian help and named a few Indian nuclear scientists in this connection. This was dismissed in India as one of the publicity stunts that Pakistanis resorts to from time to time. Islamabad's purpose in floating the fib about 'rogue' Indian nuclear scientists was to coax the Americans into believing that its 'enemy', India, too was in the same game and, hence, India should also be named.

The Americans ever ready to oblige the Pakistanis to keep them on in the Bush administration's farcical war against terrorism pursued the 'lead' provided by Islamabad. The names of Indian scientists allegedly helping Iran in its nuclear programme began to be pushed on the international stage by the US. According to Indian officials, the Americans have offered no evidence about the alleged roguish activities of the Indian nuclear scientists. But on the other hand, the US wants India to furnish 'proof' of its 'innocence'.

That kind of American audacity is deplorable, but not unexpected. The Americans gather their 'evidence' from not only their own sources--CIA operatives in and out of India-- but also through 'intelligence cooperation' with countries in the region. As far as Indian activities are concerned this means that the US gets its 'intelligence input from Islamabad. The extent of fiction in that can be anybody's guess. But the Indian Government would also do well to increase its vigil over the activities of the American intelligence network in India. It might be a good idea to take a close look at the over-staffed US embassy in India. Two countries which post a large number of spies in their missions in India are the US and Pakistan. It is hard to say if it is in that order or in the reverse order.

At one time the large presence of Americans was justified on the ground that the US was engaged in some aid missions in India. But the US offers practically no aid to India-- all its dollars earmarked for the region go to Islamabad. It is to be remembered that after 9/11 the Americans have been trying to beef up the presence of ground operatives in foreign countries. The Americans see a special reason for increasing the presence of their ingelligence operatives in India not only because it is suspected to be full of anti-Americans (consider the way Indian visitors are treated at American airports) but also because of the surprise and shock Washington received after the BJP-led Government conducted nuclear tests in the Pokhran desert in May 1998.

It is for India to snub the Americans and that will be possible if first Indian officials curb their effusiveness about the US. The way the UPA Government, over which, says the BJP, the Left has a Rasputin-like influence, keeps eulogising the Next Step on Strategic Partnership (NSSP) as a positive step forward looks like a misplaced trust in US policies towards India. Despite the praise heaped on the NSSP, the ground reality is that the US will continue to keep certain nuclear and space related cooperation out of bounds for Indian scientists and entities. The US has lifted ban on ISSRO but not its units. India cannot be granted access to a host of 'sensitive' items. The US puts pressure on India to buy weapons and big civilian aircrafts from it but only if Pakistan has no objection to the sale of any of items to India.

Given the present world realities no country, much less India, can afford to incur the hostility of the US which is run by the most chauvinistic rightist elements who treat the world as a US colony. The change of administration in Washington can, at best, make a marginal difference. But what countries like India can and must do is to stop showing an excessive enthusiasm for whatever the US does or says. The US is said to be keen to enlist Indian support for one of its latest security measures that will allow foreign ships and aircrafts to be interdicted while in transit. The previous NDA Government had endorsed the new missile defence initiatives of the US without even trying to know what would it mean to India. Surely, the new Government would not stop to subservience, knowng full well that the US can never be a trusted friend. The history of US relations with third world countries in the last 50 years proves that.

Syndicate Features

Will Pakistan stop drug trafficking ?

By B L Kak

New Delhi and Islamabad have just begun to set the stage for a 'crucial' round of talks between the two sides on the operational strategy against trafficking in drugs and narcotics. The second round of talks, to be held soon, will be led by Director-Generals of anti-drugs wings of India and Pakistan.

Ensuing talks will assume much significance in the context of India and Pakistan already having emerged as major drug trafficking conduits. The previous round of talks between the teams from the Indian Narcotics Control Bureau and Pakistani Anti Narcotics Force (ANF) took place last June. The volume of illegal trade between India and Pakistan is estimated at 2 billion dollars.

Not long ago, the United States Drug Enforcement Agency found Pakistan as the safe haven for drug pushers, posing a serious threat to the plans of America and some countries in the West against drug trafficking. A report of the US agency had even warned most Western governments against chasing shadows and continued flow of heroin and brown sugar through an intricate and illicit international network for the narcotics habits of American and Western European addicts.

Numerous, indeed, are the instances cited in the report regarding the flow of illicit heroin into America and some other countries from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Iran, besides Myanmar which falls within the Golden Triangle. The US agency had estimated that between 30 and 40 percent of illicit heroin being smuggled into America came from the Golden crescent, comprising Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Golden crescent assumed importance in the hazy world of drugs mainly in the '70s, when a three-year crop failure in the Golden Triangle---Thailand, Burma (now known as Myanmar) and Laos---resulted in a shortage of drugs.

The Golden Crescent, subsequently, moved in to fill the void. And Peshawar in Pakistan became the capital of the Crescent drug operations. No wonder, a pointed question has again been raized: Will Pakistan fully stop drug trafficking? Answer to this question is not far to seek. Multi-farious and multi-faceted activities of the Inter-Services Intelligence, a highly powerful and potent official agency of Pakistan, are, to a large extent, funded by the drug money. Hence, the possibility of an early end to Pakistan's drug trafficking is ruled out.

Pakistani authorities claim to have reduced illicit poppy harvest from 8,000 tonnes a year to about 65 tonnes. Interestingly, however, the number of heroin addicts in Pakistan alone has been put at around five lakh. According to one assessment, an addict in Pakistan spends between Rs 400 and Rs 1,000 per day to get 'a proper kick'.

After trade was made unrestricted between India and Myanmar, dangerous drugs have already flowing into India's northeastern region from across the border. Even as several measures have been taken by law-enforcing agencies along the frontier between the two countries, the menace of drug trafficking continues along the international border. Afghan fugitives--their exact number is not forthcoming--have already pitched themselves in some places in northern Myanmar. They have brought with them their home-made laboratories to convert opium into heroin.

The assessment made by the United Nations Fund Drug Abuse Control (UNFDAC) has illustrated how India is being used by the traffickers as a channel for smuggling drugs to other countries. Although the UN body has appreciated the Indian Government's 'determined' efforts to control drug trafficking, it does not seem to be fully satisfied with the implementation of the plans on the subject. What is worrying New Delhi is that India is developing into a 'major' source of drug trafficking in the world.

While part of the stuff smuggled outside is manufactured in India, the bulk of it is first smuggled into India from Pakistan and Afghanistan in the west and Myanmar in the east. The Government of India as well as most States and Union Territories will continue to face probems on illicit drug-narcotic front in view of the happenings in the neighbouring countries of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Myanmar and Bangladesh. New Delhi had strong reasons as it, for years, kept building pressure on Islamabad in support of a joint mechanism between the two countries to effectively curb drug trafficking.

In June 2004, New Delhi and Islamabad reckoned the need for cooperation between them. The two countries, in fact, decided to share information and operational intelligence to curb narcotics trafficking. Will the exercise really be permitted to bear fruit, if one were to take into account the clandestine use of narcotics money for Islamist radicals and jihadi terrorism in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in the country?

The Indo-Pakistan talks on narcotics trafficking are actually a follow-up to the United Nations international drug control conference held at Vienna in 1994. India and Pakistan, which were partly to the conference recommendations, had agreed to hold two meetings in a year at the level of experts to review the illegal drug trafficking situation and measures needed to curb the phenomenon.

The ensuing talks between New Delhi and Islamabad will take place at a time when a marked growth had been noticed in the activities of drug traffickers and smugglers operating from Afghanistan, Myanmar and Bangladesh, besides Pakistan. The smugglers from Afghanistan, in the guise of refugees, deal mainly in hashish and brown sugar. The latter, which is opium refined to the point of being as good as heroin, is not produced locally, but brought mainly from Baluchistan and the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) of Pakistan as well as Afghanistan.

The Pathan tribesmen who wander freely across the Durand Line that marks the frontier between Pakistan and Afghanistan, make own laws and do not take gladly to other people's. American and European drug dealers, who have long regarded Pakistan as a useful source of hashish, which grows in most parts of the country, may well be responsibile for instructing Pathan chemists and financing their initial outlay.

Is the evil of Golden Crescent slowly spilling over to India? At least that is what the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) believes, after the recent arrest of some Afghan smugglers. The anti-narcotics cell of the CBI has already warned the authorities of serious consequences if harsher laws are not introduced to combat the growing threat from the flow and consumption of various kinds of narcotics in India.

Battle against AIDS: Hard Task ahead

By Arvinder Kaur

As of today, 38 million are living in the world with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the causative agent of AIDS infection. More than 20 million with HIV/AIDS have died since the first AIDS case was identified in 1981.

India has so far been able to maintain a relatively how HIV prevalence rate of 0.7 per cent among the adult population. However, with a population of one billion in the country, even low HIV prevalence rates translate into a large volume of infection.

About 5.1 million people are infected with HIV in India ---- second only to South Africa. By 2005, it is estimated that the country will have more people infected with HIV than any other country in the world.

Three states --- Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Manipur --- account for three-fourth of the country's estimated HIV cases. The last few years have seen a broadening of the epidemic across the southern and western states of India as is evident by the sharp increase in the number of HIV - positive cases in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

The predominant mode of HIV transmission in India is through heterosexual contact, the second most common mode being injecting drug use. In the north-eastern state of Manipur, there is a concentration of cases among injecting drug users. In fact, India's epidemic is made up of a number of epidemics and the spread of the disease in India is as diverse as the social patterns between different regions, states and metropolitan areas, and in some places they occur within the same State.

The transmission of HIV within and from the marginalised groups, including commercial sex workers, truck drivers, migrant labourers and the injecting drug users, mainly drives the epidemic in India.

There seems to be a shifting trend of the AIDS epidemic in India. The infection is spreading rapidly to the general population. The shifting urban - rural pattern, however slow, is a serious point; what was predominantly confined to urban areas is now becoming increasingly evident in rural areas as well, health experts say.

A UN expert has warned that the number of HIV/AIDs cases in China and India are reaching crisis proportions and could threaten the world economy.

Swift action is needed to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS in Asia, where the number of cases is rising rapidly in many countries, head of the U.N. AIDs program Peter Piot said at a conference in Washington recently.

He called for stronger international efforts to fight AIDS in Asia and Eastern Europe, without cutting back on efforts in sub-Saharan Africa, where it is already an epidemic.

China says some 840,000 of its people were infected with HIV in 2003, but experts believe the actual figure is much higher. The World Health Organisation has predicted that china could have 10 million AIDS cases by 2010 unless effective measures are taken quickly.

India has the world's second - highest number of AIDS cases, at an estimated 5.1 million, after South Africa.

The latest UNAIDS report says both countries had failed to prevent HIV infections from spreading beyond drug users and sex workers to the general population.

However, Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramadoss announced on the World AIDS Day that a national awareness programme was being launched, especially targeting the youth between 15 and 25 years of age. He said highly vulnerable states including Assam, Bihar, Delhi, Himachal, Pradesh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal and Orissa.

The Government was also planning to go to international market to procure anti-AIDS drug to guard against supply interruption. The Union Government was also proposing to bring in a legislation to prevent denial of admission in educational institutions to children affiliated with the disease. A comprehensive bill on this and other issues was being vetted by the law ministry and it would soon by tabled in the Parliament.

In another initiative, the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) announced that it would start airing a daily soap on national television network from January next year and run special trains across the country to spread awareness about the disease. Exhibitions and young artists in the trains will help spread awareness among the rural population.

The West Bengal Government has decided to include the topic of AIDS in school curriculum from standard VI. The curriculum would include role-based modules, games and quiz to shed the taboo related with AIDS.

Nagaland Government has also announced that it would come out with a detailed plan of action to deal with various aspects of HIV/AIDS. Courses on AIDS awareness already exist in school curricula in Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, though they begin from senior secondary level.

Meanwhile, the National Commission for Women has released an action plan on AIDS. The plan aims at removing the fear about HIV positive cases and the social stigma attached to it.

The action plan includes providing free treatment to women suffering from HIV/AIDS and promoting women friendly reproductive and sexual health services.

India launched the National AIDS Control Programme in 1987, focussing on blood safety, prevention among the high-risk population, raising awareness among the people and improving surveillance. In 1992, the ministry of health and family welfare set up the National AIDS Control organisation to implement and closely monitor the various components of the programme.

By 1999, the initiative succeeded in establishing a decentralised mechanism to facilitate an effective state-level response although variation continued to exist in terms of commitment and capacity among the states. While states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu Manipur have shown consistent political commitment, many other states have yet to demonstrate a strong response.

The HIV sentinel surveillance system was started in 1994 to monitor trends of HIV infection in specific high-risk groups and also low-risk groups over a period of time.

In a bid to reduce the spread of infection more effectively and strengthen the country's capacity to respond to HIV/AIDs on a long-term basis, the National AIDS Control Programme Phase II became effective from November 1999 with greater emphasis on priority targeted interventions for people at high-risk, preventive interventions for general population, institutional strengthening and involvement of public, private and voluntary sectors.India is one of the few countries that started the AIDS prevention programme at a very early stage of the epidemic. The Government gave topmost priority to HIV as a national issue. However, the major challenges still remain and there is need to enhance the overall effectiveness of the programme.

This year's theme on World AIDS Day was women, girls, HIV and AIDS which reflects how important is the impact of HIV/AIDS on women and girls. Half of all the people living with the infection are women.

Adolescent girls are particularly vulnerable in countries like India. There is growing evidence that new HIV infection among adolescents is rising.

In some African countries girls appear to have significantly higher incidence of HIV infection than boys. Illiteracy, poverty, ignorance, instability, violence and poor access to the health care system all contribute to the problem.

Health experts say the effectiveness of the prevention strategies initiated under National AIDS Control programme need periodic evaluation with timely modification. The spread of infection among women and children also needs immediate attention.

The experience from Africa indicates that thousands of children have become orphaned because of the death of their parents due to AIDS. The low status of women with limited access to financial and economic assets often weakens women's ability to protect themselves and practice safer sex.

The stigma associated with the disease and discrimination of people living with HIV/AIDs needs effective intervention. Ostracism by the family and the neighbours must be looked into. The stigma among health care workers is a serious issue and should be properly dealt with. It is extremely important to address human rights violations and create a positive environment that imparts knowledge and encourages behavioural changes.

Although funding for prevention efforts is of utmost importance, provision must be available for anti-retroviral treatment of AIDS. The Government has initiated a programme to roll out costly anti-retroviral therapy but needs support to monitor and expand the programme.

A strong political commitment together with a concerted response to fight against HIV/AIDS can check the spread of AIDS epidemic in India.

PTI Feature