Change policymaker's mindset, involve youth to fight AIDS: Sharmila

Toronto, Aug 18: UNICEF goodwill ambassador and noted film actor Sharmila Tagore today lamented the exclusion of children from the HIV/AIDS policies and programmes and stressed the need for change in the mindset of policymakers so as to improve the condition of children infected with the dreaded disease.

Ñ'Even though 40,000 children are infected with HIV/AIDS, they are missing from the minds of policymakers and pharma companies.

Children are missing from the Conference,Ò' Ms Tagore said while addressing mediapersons on the sidelines of 16th International AIDS Conference. She called for involving youth more in the policymaking process and changing the mindset of policy makers.

Ñ'We need to keep reminding the policymakers to keep the promises they made on HIV/AIDS while remaining involved in other important issues,Ò' she said.

Citing her experiences while visiting families in Uganda and South India, Ms Tagore recounted the hardships, stigma and discriminations being faced by children infected with HIV/AIDS and those orphaned due to the disease. She said that these children are exposed to abuse and stigma and discriminations which need to be removed by focusing attention of media on smaller positive stories.

She said that children infected and orphaned due to HIV/AIDS do not want to go to institutions but to remain with their joint families. They want something more than sympathy.

Ñ'Children need to be given roots and wings root means values and wings means competency and HIV/AIDS is all about having values and competency.Ò' Asked about the role of religious leaders in the fight against HIV/AIDS, Ms Tagore said that religious leaders have huge reach and confidence of people but faith alone could not help in this.

Ñ'India is a traditional country and we do not condone premarital sex. But we often do not know what our children are up to. We need to protect our children. Condoms are necessary though abstinence is wonderful and being faithful is excellent,Ò' she said.

Ms Tagore, who met Canadian NRIs here, said the issue of raising funds for HIV infected children was discussed at the meeting. She said a formal Indo-Canadian Joint Group will be announced in the next two weeks. It would be set up outside Toronto where a large number of NRIs are living and would focus on HIV, Women, Widows and Children.

About the contribution of Indian corporate houses in the fight against HIV/AIDS, she said many of them are making efforts to tackle the disease within their organisations. However, these efforts are fragmented, she pointed out and said the idea was to consolidate these works.

Meanwhile, Ms Sujatha Rao, Director General of National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) said the idea of a Children Trust and HIV was also mooted. The Trust would focus on education, medication and prevention of HIV in children.

NACO is undertaking an exercise of mapping 10,000 children identified as infected with HIV in India with the Global Fund on HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria and an NGO.

In the next five years, about 65,000 children would be covered by the trust so that all their psycho-social needs alongwith requirements of treatment and education are fulfilled.

NACO, in association with the Clinton Foundation is arranging pediatric HIV drugs for children. Doctors have already been trained for these children, she said.

UNI