Newsletter from Indian Committee of Youth Organizations

Youth Information

                                        February 2004 

ICYO - Platform of 350 Youth Organizations in India.          

ICYO - India’s largest network of urban and rural youth.

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Women, Girls, HIV & AIDS: theme for WAC 2004

 

The theme for the World AIDS Campaign 2004 is Women, Girls, HIV and AIDS. The year-long Campaign launched in February, culminating in World AIDS Day on 1 December, seeks to accelerate the global response to HIV and AIDS through a focus on women and girls – preventing new infections, promoting equal access to treatment and mitigating the impact of AIDS.

 

The main goal is to accelerate the global response to HIV and AIDS through a focus on women and girls – preventing new infections, promoting equal access to treatment and mitigating the impact of AIDS.

 

The some of objectives includes:

 

Resilience & leadership

            - Promote the role of women and girls in tackling the epidemic.      

Support

            - Encourage women and girls living with HIV to tell their story.

Awareness

- Highlight the impact HIV and AIDS has on women and girls globally, regionally & nationally.

Change

- Challenge gender differences that make women and girls more vulnerable to HIV.

National Focus

- Ensure national policies and responses focus on the impact of AIDS on women and girls.

Confidence

- Increase the self-esteem of women, especially those vulnerable to/or infected with HIV.

 

The Problem

 

HIV prevention efforts are failing women and girls as they continue to be infected with HIV – across the world many women infected through heterosexual sex were infected by their husbands or long-term partners.

 

Marriage is no protection against HIV. Across the developing world, the majority of women will be married by age 20 and have higher rates of HIV than their unmarried, sexually active peers.

 

Across the world, between one fifth and a half of all girls and young women report that their first sexual encounter was forced.

 

In some of the regions worst-affected by AIDS, more than half of girls aged 15 to 19 have either never heard about AIDS or have at least one major misconception about how HIV is transmitted.

 

Women comprise about half of all people living with HIV/AIDS. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 58 percent of those living with HIV were women as of end 2003 and young women aged 15 to 24 were 2.5 times more likely to be infected than young men. 

 

HIV and Young People:

Empower school AIDS Education Programme in Tamil Nadu in India

 

The HIV/AIDS epidemic poses one of the greatest threats to our state's future. Although it is an uncomfortable fact, we in Tamil Nadu are facing one of the fastest growing epidemics in the country. In few districts, the level of HIV infections has exceeded 4% of the adult population. Over 50% of new infections in the world are occurring in the age group of 15-25 years. Similar trends are being observed here in Tamil Nadu, underlining the need to focus on young people.

 

Young people are our greatest hope in the continuing struggle against this fatal disease. There are some parts of the world where the spread of HIV/AIDS has declined only because young women and men were given the information, tools and incentives to adopt safe behaviours. (indev/feb)

 

HIV/AIDS: Young married women are at greater risk.

 

“AIDS has added to women’s vulnerability,” says Dr Nafis Sadik, special advisor to the United Nations secretary general who is in India to give the inaugural Sat Paul Mittal Memorial Lecture on women and population.

 

According to Dr Sadik, marriage no longer provides safety and economic security to women. “Instead,” she says, “it has become a hazard to women’s health. Ninety to 95% of married women in South Asia who are HIV-positive are infected by their husbands. Married women have a higher incidence of HIV than men in the same age-group.”

 

Recent reports show that young married women are at greater risk even with single partners because of the ‘sexual behaviour’ of their partners. A study in Uttar Pradesh showed that 90% of affected women were young and married and had only one sexual partner. Another study reported that in Karnataka, the northeast and the coastal belt, infection among younger married women was six times higher.

 

Dr Sadik believes that education and awareness drives targeting male populations will help address such issues.

 

40% of syringes unsafe in India

 

“A study conducted on the issue of unsafe injections in India reveals that 23.9% of injections use syringes of doubtful sterility and 16.2% are made up of recycled syringes and needles,” the Indian health ministry is quoted as saying.

 

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently observed that three out of every four injections in India and other south Asian countries use unsterilised needles, which make people vulnerable to infections like HIV and hepatitis. Three recent studies in an international journal on sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS also argue that unsafe injections, not unsafe sex, are the main reason for the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa.

 

According to the journal, 48% of AIDS cases are a result of using unclean syringes, while 30% are due to unsafe sex. It also pointed to the occurrence of HIV in infants whose mothers are not HIV-positive.

 

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This is the newsletter of ICYO.

Indian Committee of Youth Organizations

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Indian Committee of Youth Organizations (ICYO) is a registered non-profit, non-governmental network organization, committed in developing areas of mutual cooperation and understanding among different youth voluntary agencies, youth groups, clubs and individuals working in the field of youth welfare in India.  ICYO functions as an umbrella organization of youth NGOs in India. Its family consists of over 350 organizations spread in 122 districts of 22 states from different corners of India.

 

Affiliation:  Consultative (Roster) Status with ECOSOC, United Nations; Consultative Status with Commission on Sustainable Development; Full Member of World Assembly of Youth (WAY); Full Member of Asian Youth Council (AYC); Member of Youth for Habitat International Network (YFHIN); Affiliate group of ECPAT International, Bangkok, Thailand.