The Hindu : National : AIDS awareness programme for BSF jawans

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 23, 2005

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AIDS awareness programme for BSF jawans

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLKATA, MARCH 22. A two-year Rs. 2.70 lakh USD project aimed at reducing the spread and impact of HIV cases among Border Security Force personnel and their families in West Bengal will be launched by BSF authorities in New Delhi tomorrow. The project will subsequently bring under its purview jawans stationed in other parts of the country. Similar programmes are expected to be taken up for other para-military forces.

``Anecdotal'' evidence suggests a ``fairly high'' incidence of sexually-transmitted diseases among BSF jawans in West Bengal. There are 22 cases of AIDS, which have been reported from various battalions in the State, according to a BSF Frontier Hospital medical officer in South Bengal.

Speaking to The Hindu , S. Kumar, Project Director, West Bengal State AIDS Prevention and Control Society which, along with the United Nations Development Programme and the United Nations AIDS, will be funding the project said ``uniformed personnel deployed in areas close to the State's border with Bangladesh were very vulnerable to HIV and there was need to protect the jawans from it.'' The project, called `Prahari', seeks to develop ``strategies and tools for mainstreaming HIV into select institutional mechanisms of the BSF within West Bengal to reduce vulnerabilities.''

The project also aimed to incorporate HIV and AIDS awareness in all training establishments of the BSF, follow it up in areas where the jawans were deployed and to improve access to condoms, counselling and treatment of sexually-transmitted diseases.

The cross-border movement of sex workers many of whom were found living in colonies close to BSF camps along the State's border with Bangladesh heightened the vulnerability of the jawans to the disease, according to Mr. Kumar. There was a need to enhance the capacities of the force's medical corps in the State ``through integrating HIV, AIDS and STD knowledge with the existing activities.'' Though West Bengal continues to be demarcated as a ``low-HIV epidemic'' State the number of HIV-positive cases has increased sharply over the past year.

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