New Year Shocker: NGOs see red over AIDS control body?s cost-cutting measures

THE NEW year began on a grim note for 179 NGOs as a terse circular from the Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society (MSACS) directed the activists to suspend ?targeted intervention? activities related to HIV prevention.
People working in the field of HIV prevention had hoped for a fresh start this year, considering last year, they were hit by fund paucity, shortage of condoms, lack of testing kits and no salaries.
?Already, several activities have been stopped such as health camps as there are no testing kits,? said Kalyani Patil, Pune district programme officer of MSACS.However, despite the slowdown in activities, NGOs were optimistic of some assurance from the state. ?Instead, on the last day of 2015, at 5.30 pm, a mail was sent out to all the NGOs by Pravin Sonawane, Deputy Director (TI-NGO), MSACS, directing them to suspend Targeted Intervention (TI) activities from January 1, 2016,? Meena Seshu, general secretary of Sangram ? (Sampada Gramin Mahila Sanstha), an NGO working in the field of HIV prevention which had also set up VAMP (Veshya Anyay Mukti Parishad) a sex workers? collective, told The Indian Express.
The mail on December 31 was also followed by another e-mail on January 4 that sought to ?clarify? that strategies like ?community-based activity? should be suspended.
?This is laughable. If we do not work in the community, then whom should we work with?,? asks Seshu as she plans to take up the issue at the public hearing planned by the National Human Rights Commission and Jan Arogya Abhiyaan on January 6 and 7 in Mumbai.
- See more at: http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/pune/new-year-shocker-ngos-see-red-over-aids-control-bodys-cost-cutting-measures/#sthash.fWWBySYD.dpuf
Read more: Click Here