Other States - Puducherry   

Eradicate poverty to fight HIV: Lt. Governor

PUDUCHERRY: Lieutenant Governor Govind Singh Gurjar on Friday stressed the need to eradicate poverty and emancipate women to fight Human Immunodeficiency Virus. “Unequal power relations and the low status of women, as expressed by limited access to human, financial and economic assets, weakens the ability of women to protect themselves from getting infected with HIV,” he said in his inaugural address at a seminar on “HIV-AIDS and Child Development.”

If children were to be protected from getting infected with the virus, it was pertinent that women, particularly those from the poor socio-economic background have to be made aware of the potential pitfalls, he said, adding that infection rates among women and children had been on the higher side in certain States.

Stressing the need to adopt a holistic approach to curb the spread of HIV, he said it was necessary to bring about a social change to improve the standard of living by providing education for all. Government on its own could not bring about the necessary change and each individual had to contribute their might in achieving the task, he said.

Quoting a Commonwealth Secretariat report on HIV/AIDS, he said over 15 million children under the age of 18 had lost one or both parents due to the disease.

Of the 57 lakh HIV positive cases in India, around 25 lakh were women and 1.2 lakh children, he added. Statistics also revealed that most affected segment of the population belonged to the age between 15 and 20, he said.

Fear and ignorance had compounded the difficulty in controlling the spread of HIV, he said. Member of Parliament M. Ramadass handed over the first copy of the souvenir to the Lieutenant Governor.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Rangasamy seeks people’s support for good governance
Eradicate poverty to fight HIV: Lt. Governor
Fervour marks schools’ celebrations
Meritorious police personnel rewarded
“Consider Ramanathan Committee report”
BSNL introduces new scheme
Lt. Governor, CM participate in festival
Birth anniversary
I-Day festivities chime with leitmotif of ‘unity in diversity’

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu