Confusion regarding NACO guideline for hiring ICTC counselors

[Guest guest]

Dear all,

My name is Arunava Nath and I am a member of the MSM community, and

also secretary of Madhya Banglar Sangram, a CBO working with MSM and

TG communities in the mid-Bengal region. I am writing this mail

regarding a confusion with the NACO operational guidelines for the

recruitment of counselors for ICTCs.

On the 10th of October I went for an interview for the post of

counselor at an ICTC in West Bengal. The interview call stated that

the candidates were required to be graduates in Social Sciences,

including sociology, social work, etc. Although my graduate degree is

in the humanities (history) I have a post-graduate degree in Social

work (MSW) and as a community member I also have work experience at a

CBO.

Despite this, during the scrutiny of documents I was told that I

was not eligible because I didn’t have graduate degree in social

sciences.

They cited the NACO operational guideline for ICTC, as

bearing this requirement for counselors. However, when I myself

consulted the NACO guidelines, I saw that the following was stated on

Page no. 7 of the document:

In the case of those recruited from the community of people infected

with or affected by HIV/AIDS, graduates from any field or those with a

diploma in Nursing may be considered if they have a minimum of one

year of experience in the field of HIV/AIDS. It is desirable that the

counsellor holds a postgraduate degree either in Psychology (MA/MSc)

or Social Work†(NACO operational guidelines for Intergated

Counselling and Testing Centres, July 2007, p. 7).

I am therefore confused and curious about how the above guidelines are

being applied during recruitment of counselors for ICTCs. As a

community member with experience at a CBO working with HIV-AIDS, why

was I not considered for the interview for a counselor’s post? Another

member of our CBO (Madhya Banglar Sangram) faced a similar experience

during another such interview for post of counselor. We want to ask

what does the phrase “community of people infected or affected by

HIV/AIDS†mean? As per NACP-III the community of ‘MSM’ is a high-risk

group affected by HIV/AIDS, so shouldn’t the guidelines for

recruitment be applicable to us community members?

I would request the members of this list for comments, suggestions or

advice regarding the situation,

Thanks, sincerely,

Arunava Nath

Secretary,

Madhya Banglar Sangram.

e-mail: <nbappa88@...>