Southern States - Andhra Pradesh   

Innovative anti-AIDS campaign

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD Sept. 4. "Pulirajaki AIDS Vasthunda'' is the urgent question which will be asked of us from hoardings, TV, cinema halls and newspapers as part of an ambitious mass awareness campaign on HIV/AIDS. This high-decibel intensive campaign aims at bringing about behavioural change in sexual relations of vulnerable groups and also get people talking about the threat of AIDS.

Unveiling the details of this campaign here on Thursday, Sanjay R. Chaganti, HIV/AIDS prevention programme director of Population Services International (PSI), said that the campaign has two main components named "consequences'' and "Puliraja.''

The first campaign aims at highlighting the consequences of irresponsible sexual behaviour, especially by married men, on their wives and children.

The second campaign comprises four 30-second short films, which address basic misconceptions that most people have regarding AIDS through a fictional character `Puliraja'. Conceptualised as a friendly and lovable locality "hero'', `Puliraja' shows those very behaviour patterns which are being targeted as high risk.

Based on surveys and field investigations, PSI has identified three main areas, which need to be addressed in this campaign. One, that men often do not use condoms when drunk, two, the misconception that "healthy looking'' people cannot be "diseased by HIV'' and three, that they will not contact the virus from "known people.''

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