The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Anti-AIDS campaign to rev up through auto drivers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 14, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Anti-AIDS campaign to rev up through auto drivers

Staff Reporter

Training programme organised as part of an initiative

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu AIDS Control Society (TANSACS) and the Tamil Nadu Voluntary Health Association organised a training programme on Tuesday for autorickshaw drivers as part of an initiative of “Partnering with auto drivers to halt the spread of HIV/AIDS.”

TANSACS has identified 200 autorickshaw drivers to receive the training.

The first batch of 40 drivers received the training on Tuesday. An official of TANSACS said the programme would involve teaching the basics of HIV/AIDS, including transmission of the virus and its prevention as well as sensitising them to people living with the virus.

Senior media director of the Hero’s Project Vinita Sidhartha said the programme was the first of its kind and was formulated based on the idea that autorickshaw drivers seem to be an all-pervasive part of city life in Chennai. “It is a kind of a training of trainers. Autorickshaw drivers meet many people and it is important that they are aware of all aspects of the disease. It is also a scientifically drawn-up training process which involves collecting people, sensitising them and then enabling them to, in turn, disseminate what they have learned,” she said, adding that even if 50 people really got the message, it would really help the cause of preventing the spread of the disease.

The TANSACS officer said that all participants were given a pre- and post-workshop questionnaire to fill so that the organisers were able to gauge the levels of understanding. Apart from awareness-raising lectures, the workshop also had an HIV-positive woman talk to the autorickshaw drivers about some of the misconceptions about people with HIV/AIDS.

V. Munnusami, an autorickshaw driver for 28 years, said that he felt creating awareness amongst the drivers was a good idea as they met many people from different walk of life every day . C. Selvam is a young man who has been driving a hired autorickshaw for the last five years. He said that his understanding of the disease was limited and was only based on what he had learned through advertisements and posters. “Now I have a more complete understanding and will also spread the word among my friends and colleagues,” he said.

Mr. Munnusami, Secretary of the Chennai Central Auto Drivers and Commuters Welfare Society, said that everybody should get the complete message across and that he would now do his best to spread the message to all those within his association as well as other autorickshaw associations.

“All of us need to do our part to prevent the spreading of this disease in our country,” he said.

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