Children Affected and Vulnerable to HIV/AIDS in India.

[Guest guest]

Children Affected and Vulnerable to HIV/AIDS in India.

Excerpts from the India Progress Report on the Declaration of

Commitment on HIV/AIDS Presented at the United Nations General

Assembly. Special Session on HIV/AIDS. June 2006

" One of the major challenges in India is the increasing number of

pediatric HIV infection and the lack of sufficient programmes. In

order to develop comprehensive and sustainable response to children

a national consultation, initiated by Department of Women and Child

Development/ UNICEF was held in New Delhi in March 2005. The

consultation brought together representative from the Government of

India, UN partner organisations, FBOs, networks of people living

with AIDS and donors.

The five strategies of the international framework for protection

care and support of children living in a world of HIV/AIDS were

endorsed by the Government of India. As an outcome of the national

consultation a task force of stakeholder representatives was

initiated under the stewardship of DWCD, NACO and UNICEF to follow

up on key recommendations. However a significant barrier to the

planning process is that data is not available to decide the size of

population of children affected by HIV/AIDS. There is limited

information about the situation of children affected by HIV/AIDS, no

information about the types of approaches that are best suited to

the India context and scant information about the current

projections and magnitude of the problem. Children have restricted

access to ARV and testing and counseling and the present coverage

has limitations in scope and scale. "

NACO, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Government of India New

Delhi 2005

http://data.unaids.org/pub/Report/2006/2006_country_progress_report_i

ndia_en.pdf