Beggars in Bihar to curb spread of AIDS
Wednesday, 08 November , 2006, 17:51
www.sify.com

Kolkata: Thousands of beggars in Bihar have been recruited to help
stem the spread of the HIV/AIDS virus by singing songs and acting in
plays about safe sex.

Officials in Bihar say they want to train many of the state's
estimated 1,00,000 vagrants to sing songs in trains and buses and
beside busy roads, as well as enact street plays about the deadly
virus.

"Beggars are great actors and very creative," Vijay Prakash, Bihar's
welfare secretary, said. "They always had the skills, but lacked
direction which we are giving them and the experiments have so far
been very successful."

India has the world's highest HIV/AIDS caseload with 5.7 million
infected people, according to the United Nations AIDS agency. But
activists say the true figure may be much higher as surveillance is
limited in much of the country.

According to official figures, just 1,078 people from Bihar's
population of over 83 million are infected with the virus—although
AIDS campaigners say infection rates are grossly under reported.

The new recruits will be paid a few hundred rupees for their work.

"Some can dance very well, and we hope our training programme will
help them earn a living," Prakash said.

If the project is successful, officials plan to recruit beggars to
promote awareness of diseases like polio and malaria.

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