CHENNAI : The Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society (TANSACS) is stepping up its campaign in the city by targeting migrant workers, youngsters working in business process outsourcing units, call centres and factories. The move is necessitated by a change in behaviour of these groups.

The results of behaviour surveillance survey for 2004-2005, conducted by the AIDS Prevention and Control Project (APAC) in urban areas and released on Tuesday, threw up a few surprises.

The prevalence of HIV/AIDS infection among mothers coming to ante-natal clinic has come down to 0.5 per cent. But, a worrisome behaviour is that fewer women migrant workers use condom and there has been a rise in their involvement in extra and pre-marital sexual activities.

Though information about AIDS is fairly widespread, the misconception about transmission and prevention of HIV among male factory workers and migrant workers is high. Only some workers (men and women) and `Aravanis' considered abstinence as a prevention option for HIV.

More men in slums, factory workers and migrant workers are involved with casual partners and a higher proportion of factory workers and migrant workers use condoms with such partners. While more homosexuals are involved with a paid partner, the pattern has stabilised among truckers, slum youth and male factory workers and migrant workers.

Truckers and helpers and slum youth are more aware of risk behaviours but the perception is low among factory workers, female sex workers and injected drug users. Among homosexuals the risk varies by the sex of the partners and voluntary HIV testing practice remains low.

Praneetha Varma, programme manager, Research, APAC, presented the results to various organisations involved in the exercise and working with HIV/AIDS-infected people.

The APAC project is administered by Voluntary Health Services, Chennai, with financial assistance from the United States Agency for International Development.

The surveillance survey included a sample size of 7,400 interviews across 11 high-risk groups and included indicators such as knowledge, high-risk behaviour, condom use, prevalence of sexually transmitted infections, treatment seeking behaviour and perception of risk of contracting HIV.

Besides covering 1,000 colleges and 18 lakh school students through Red Ribbon Clubs, TANSACS has proposed targeted intervention since there had been a change in the behaviour of these groups.

"There is a need to reach out to young people with disposable income, who have the advantage of free working area," said Supriya Sahu, Project Director, TANSACS.

She also called for a shift from urban to rural population by targeting women through self-help groups. TANSACS aims to reach out to 50 lakh women SHGs this year, she said.

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