AIDS epidemic: PM ropes in industry

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 1. Signalling a heightened concern of the Government over the unrelenting progress of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, the Prime Minister, Mr. A. B. Vajpayee, today held a meeting with leading industrialists exclusively to discuss how best they could contribute to contain the killer disease.

The Prime Minister said business and industry particularly had a responsibility, considering that once the geometric progression of the disease reached a critical level, it would begin to take an ever-increasing toll on the productive sections of the population. ``The consequence of this on the economy of individual business units, as also on the national economy, can be devastating.''

Mr. Vajpayee set out an agenda, immediately accepted by the participants, covering elimination of HIV screening as part of pre-employment physical examination, prevention of discrimination against HIV positive persons in workplaces, and provision of easy access to condoms among employees and their families, besides funding of comprehensive health services for them and making use of business advertising to create public awareness on the various aspects of the disease.

He emphasised the need for special efforts to protect migrant labourers, who were, by and large, unorganised and a neglected lot, and to strengthen the fight against drug abuse. He also urged the industry to support research on prevention and cure of HIV/AIDS and promote better care of the affected persons.

The 90-minute meeting, at the Prime Minister's office, was attended by 45 industrialists, including presidents of the three chambers of commerce and industry and chairmen of several public sector undertakings. The UNAID's Country Director, Dr. Olavi Elo, was also present.

Earlier, the Union Health Minister, Dr. C.P.Thakur, held a video conference with the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Maharashtra, which focussed on identification of priorities for action at the State-level, location of potential areas of cooperation among States and exploration of the kind of assistance needed from the Centre to prevent the spread of the disease.

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