Goa: HIV-infected persons may get monthly imbursement shortly

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HIV-infected persons may get monthly imbursement shortly 

 

Source: The Navhind Tmes, Goa - Edition.

Tuesday, January  20, 20

NT NETWORK

PANAJI - The Minister for Social Welfare, Mr Ramkrishna Dhavalikar on Monday

said that his department has cleared the proposal for monthly payment of Rs

1,000 under the Dayanand Social Security Scheme to HIV infected persons from

Goa, and the same is now before the finance department for its approval.?The

department of social welfare has already decided that the directorate of health

services would be the implementing agency for the payment of the sum to the HIV

patients,? he told ?The Navhind Times?, adding that all the modalities for the

same, including maintaining secrecy about the list of such beneficiaries, have

been worked out by the DHS.

 

Meanwhile, the project director of the Goa State AIDS Control Society, Dr

Pradeep Padwal, speaking to this daily said that the scheme would not be open

for each and every person infected with the HIV, but for only those HIV patients

identified to be living under the below poverty line (BPL) and fulfilling the

15-year domicile clause, as regards their period of residence in the state. ?The

DHS would be suggesting the beneficiaries as well as maintain their list, which

would be highly confidential document,? he maintained.

 

The government has also taken a decision to set up two new community care

centres for the HIV infected persons, and further invited proposals from the

NGOs for the same. Presently, there are two such centres existing at Girvadem,

in North Goa as well another one in South Goa.

 

Speaking further, Dr Padwal said that the recently released report of the

National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) for Goa, which observed that though 94

per cent men and 86 per cent women in the state were familiar to the AIDS, fewer

adults in Goa ? both men and women ? know how HIV is transmitted and how to keep

away from acquiring it, did not exactly reflect the situation in the state.

 

The report had also stated, ?Only 57 per cent of the men and 48 per cent of the

women in Goa know that HIV/ AIDS can be prevented by using condoms

consistently,? further adding, ?Increasing HIV/ AIDS education will be a

critical step to curb the number of new HIV cases in Goa.?

 

?The NFHS-3 was a random sample survey, and though the WHO guidelines state that

a random sample survey has lesser chances of being fallacious, the NFHS-3 does

not present an exact picture of HIV/AIDS scenario in Goa,? Dr Padwal stated,

adding that persons belonging to floating population in Goa could have been a

part of the

sample survey 09.

____________________________

 

Jaffer Inamdar

President

" Positive Lives Foundation, PLF-GOA "

plf@... / plfgoa@...

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