Wives of migrant labourers to act as ‘HIV counsellors’

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Bhubaneswar: Alarmed by a large number of HIV positive cases in Ganjam district due to migrant labourers, the district administration has prepared a blueprint to involve the spouses of labourers as “HIV counsellors” for a targeted population.
Disturbed by the high incidence of HIV cases in the district, the administration has come up with an innovative plan to sensitize the wives of migrant labourers returning from their workplaces outside Odisha so that they can personally counsel their partners and discuss openly on their sex life and persuade them to go for HIV testing. Such measures, the officials believe, could help check the spread of the disease from the HIV carriers to their wives.
“We have planned to sensitize wives of migrants, give some training to them so that they can talk openly with their partners once they reach home from states where they work. Wives could act as first line of defence and persuade their men to go for HIV tests so that the deadly infection would not spread into the family and progeny,” Ganjam Collector Amruta Kulange told Orissa POST. According to the blueprint, besides creating awareness about the disease among the partners of the migrant labourers, parallel measures are being taken to ensure the quarantine is done at the right time.
According to officials working to check the spread of the disease in Ganjam district, steps are being taken to maintain a register of the migrants at the villages to identify the vulnerable population and the need to intervene with information and awareness. Measures are also being taken to expedite the HIV testing of would-be couples before they tie the knot. However, the whole planning to combat the diseases comes with sociological hindrances in the conservative rural setup in the state.
“This is a noble plan and a welcome measure. However, it is tough to implement it in a conservative and patriarchal rural society. Persuading a man, who has just returned from a distant place, to go for HIV testing is difficult. Opening up about their sex life outside Odisha would be a Herculean task,” said Biswa Bhushan Pattanaik, Assistant Director of SAATHI (Solidarity and Action Against the HIV Infection in India).
According to a report of the state government, Ganjam reports the highest number of HIV cases in the state. It is reported that 15,467 persons have been tested HIV positive in the district till November, 2018 and many of them are said to be migrant labourers.