Programme to promote female condoms

New Delhi, Aug 15: In order to control the spread of HIV among women, India has decided to step up its female condom (FC) programme in a big way.

With nearly 50 percent of the 1.7 lakh fresh cases of HIV reported annually being women, the drive will be expanded from eight states to 17 in the next few months.

Though NACO buys female condom at over Rs 20 a piece from Hindustan Latex Limited (HLL), it provides them to female sex workers (FSW) for only Rs 3.50 each.

As of now, female condom is being made available to FSWs in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Rajasthan.

The nine new states, where female condom will be given to FSWs via target intervention groups, are Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, Haryana, Punjab, Assam, UP, MP and Chhattisgarh.

OneIndia News