India Inc pulling out all stops to curb AIDS

NEW DELHI The battle against HIV/AIDS, in its new avataar, has moved to the next level. Following a public-private partnership approach, National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) on Friday signed an MoU with Bilt and ACC to supply free anti-retroviral drugs to their ART units. NACO also released its operational guidelines for an ART centre, including the manpower requirements and the necessary training, to help companies set up such centres.

What’s more, India Inc is training employees to conduct HIV/AIDS awareness sessions at the workplace. HLL, Pepsi, Coca-Cola, SRF group, Bilt, Apollo Tyres and Transport Corporation of India are some of these companies which have partnered the International Labour Organisation (ILO), whereby the ILO trains the companies’ employees on disseminating information about HIV/ AIDS at the workplace. Not only that, corporates are educating truckers about HIV/ AIDS prevention, control and care at their factories and have also tied up with the state AIDS control societies for awareness sessions.

CII has launched the Access to Care and Treatment (ACT) project, along with four NGO partners, to build awareness and get the corporate sector more involved in tackling the malaise. “With CII coming forward with the ACT Project, we are now planning to set up a number of ART centres over a period of time,” said Bilt CMD Gautam Thapar.

There are close to 5.2 million HIV/AIDS-affected people in the country, and according to a study by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), HIV infections reduce a household’s income by as much as 10%.