AIDS Prevention in Kerala

[Guest guest]

Social development initiatives in partnerships for sexual health (PSH)

project, Kerala, India

Kerala, is a highly literate State and has been compared with the developed

nations in terms of its achievements in health and women's development

indicators. Kerala stands out in the entire southern part of India, with

its low HIV prevalence. The PSH Projects in Kerala has been in operation

since 1997 with the sponsorship of the Department for International

Development, India (DFID). This is a successful story of collaboration

between the Government, Private sector and the NGO sector in implementing

programmes for the prevention of HIV/AIDS.

The interventions are managed at the Sate level by the State Management

Agency, a Unit of Dalal Consultants and Engineers Ltd., run by the NGOs

and closely supervised by the Kerala State AIDS Control Society. Currently

there are 36 intervention projects, which is scattered over 85 micro-sites.

These include intervention among the Female sex workers, Men who have Sex

with Men (MSM), Prisoners, Migrant Population, Coastal Population,

Tribal population, Street Children etc. The report is an elaboration

on the various Social Development Initiatives taken up in the PSH

intervention projects in Kerala. It underlines the fact that sexual

health cannot be seen in isolation from other socio-economic realities,

the vulnerability which stems out of it and the need for these

to be addressed in a holistic manner. In the light of this, the report

discusses in detail the initiatives taken for addressing issues such as

community empowerment, felt needs of the most marginalised communities,

media initiatives, gender issues etc. in the PSH Project.

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indev e-mail digest : February 2001 (2nd issue)

The complete issue of this e-mail digest can be found on the Web at

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