Prostitution must be licensed to control HIV, says leading NRI

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Prostitution must be licensed to control HIV, says leading NRI

Hyderabad | January 09, 2006 7:40:13 PM IST

Prostitution must be licensed to control HIV as this would lead to

accountability, database and guidance towards safer sex, Dr Reshma

Badal, a bureaucrat from South Africa, said at the HIV session of the

Pravasi Bharatiya Diwas here.

''That way there would be accountability, database and guidance

towards safer sex,'' she said while participating in a session on HIV.

South Africa has been fighting against the deadly disease as 30 to 35

per cent of the population is affected by it, she told UNI adding

that the government was engaging semi-educated persons as 'Lay

Counselors' for door to door campaigns against awareness of the virus.

The government had also imposed a rule that everyone coming to the

hospital with any ailment should undergo counseling on HIV, she said.

Clinics were established at the village level to treat HIV affected

patients. Lay counselors were entrusted the job of ensuring that

affected persons regularly took their medications and nutritious food

supplied by the government, she added.

On the reasons that led to the increase in the disease in South

Africa, Dr Badal said that due to the excellent transport facilities

available, most of the wage earners worked away from their families

in the mines. This compelled them to have extra marital

relationships.

''More over the white rulers kept us slaves and kept the men away

from their families, shattering the family lives of the non-whites,''

she added.

Speaking about her Indian roots, Dr Badal told UNI that apart from

the fact that she belonged to a Hindu family, she knew nothing about

her origin, adding that after the conference was over she would do

some research on her own roots.

She informed that she did not know which state in India she belonged

to as she was the fourth generation member of a dynasty that had

settled down in South Africa in the early 19th century.

A medical doctor and a bureaucrat working with the South African

governmen, Dr Badal was also an active member of the African National

Congress (ANC) and fought the apartheid.

She said her father was a poor factory worker in South Africa but had

sent her to Ireland to study medicine, after which she came back to

South Africa and joined the ANC as captain. She was the only doctor

heading a group of 1000 soldiers. Later she was elevated to the rank

of Lieutenant Colonel.

She further added that her house in Durban was the centre of

political activity. After the country attained freedom, she joined

the Health ministry as a bureaucrat and has been engaged in the fight against

HIV AIDS since then.

UNI JRK RA HT1925