An AIDS awareness group here has said that it has had a tough time sensitizing sex workers about the dangers of HIV and the importance of safe sex.
New Delhi, Aug 25 : An AIDS awareness group here has said that it has had a tough time sensitizing sex workers about the dangers of HIV and the importance of safe sex.
'Mission,' an NGO, staged a street play and organised a mobile testing camp at G.B. Road, a locality with the city's biggest concentration of brothels.
The aim was to sensitize sex workers and customers alike about the importance of using condoms and getting themselves periodically tested for HIV.
While passersby gathered to watch the play and several got themselves tested, sex workers, the primary target group, remained closed to communication even when approached individually.
"Our visits to the brothels have been disappointing. There is a lack of enthusiasm to know and learn things. A major route for the spread of HIV is through sex workers," said Uttam Kumar Singh, the President of the 'Mission.'
Singh said the volunteers had to go back with a large stock of condoms, which they had sought to distribute in brothels.
According to AIDS activists, the lack of awareness and the widespread stigma associated with HIV-AIDS, has contributed to the paranoia about the virus.
India plans to decriminalize prostitution by treating sex workers as victims and not as workers. It plans to check the flesh trade by going after traffickers, pimps, brothel owners and clients instead.
New amendments to an existing law, expected to go before the cabinet and the Parliament in the coming days, would no longer penalize sex workers.
India has the world's highest HIV caseload, after South Africa and Nigeria, with around 2.5 million people affected by the virus.
ANI