Manoj Godara , 11 June : The Anganwari Workers work under the department of Social Welfare. They are the grass root workers and deal with all kind of families including lower middle class families in their day to day work. There are 370 Anganwari Workers in Chandigarh. State AIDS Control Society, Chandigarh under their Civil Society Mainstreaming Programme sensitized these Anganwari Workers about HIV/AIDS in three batches.
Today the 3rd and the last batch of Anganwari Workers were sensitized at Auditorium Polyclinic, Sector 22, Chandigarh. The programme was inaugurated by Mr. Phool Chand Kalyaan, Senior Deputy Mayor, Municipal Council, Chandigarh. He said it was a need to sensitize these Anganwari Workers about HIV/AIDS as there are lots of myths and doubts about this disease and this Sensitization Workshop will help in clearing their doubts.
Dr. Kavita Chavan, Project Director, State AIDS Control Society, U.T., Chandigarh said that these 370 Anganwari Workers will act as the workforce and will help in spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS to each nook and corner of the city. She also added that there are approx. 450 HIV+ve People living in Chandigarh. Out of these about 140 have AIDS and are taking treatment from the ART Center, PGIMER. Among the High Risk Groups, the prevalence of HIV in Chandigarh is highest amongst the Intravenous Drug Users (8.6%). The MSMs have lower prevalence (3.6%) and Female Commercial Sex Workers the lowest (0.4%). As unsafe sex is the commonest reason for spread of HIV, abstinence and Condom use is the only prophylaxis.
Some slogan and movies on HIV/AIDS like “Josh me hosh mat khona” Theme Song “Hath se hath mila” were also screened during the workshop to motivate the participants to spread across the message of HIV/AIDS.
An open session was also conducted where queries of participants were answered on the spot by the panel. IEC material included information booklet on HIV/AIDS were also distributed to these workers. 1097 which is a toll free HIV/AIDS helpline number of Chandigarh was also advertised and these Anganwari Workers were requested to publicized this number so that maximum people could utilize this service.