Bring women and children in top focus

"In an interview with Manish Kumar of OneWorld South Asia, Syeda Hameed, Member Planning Commission, says that the Internet, computer and the entire mass media have to really converge in HIV/AIDS awareness efforts." Syeda Hameed What is your perception about the HIV/AIDS situation in India? I have been to many forums. One was a like a public hearing forum where HIV/AIDS victims were there. What I learnt from the testimony of the victims and the people who work with HIV/AIDS is that it is a very serious problem. Especially, there are an amazing number of women who are coming under the scourge of HIV. What is the opinion of the planning commission on HIV/AIDS? I think there is a lot of consciousness about it and as far as planning commission is concerned, since I am the member responsible for health, in my mid-term appraisal of the tenth plan there is definitely a recommendation that the growing numbers of HIV/AIDS in children and women is something which has to be immediately tackled and the resources have to be deployed. Do you think the government has, so far, made adequate efforts to combat HIV/AIDS? It has always been an issue, which has been fought with lot of controversy. When you ask if the government has given enough resources to fight HIV/AIDS, it has and it has not. During my earlier visits to the North East, I had seen a lot of hoardings and other materials for creating awareness about HIV/ AIDS. But now it has disappeared, somehow, from the public eyes. Has NACO enough resources to fight against HIV/AIDS in the country? There is no doubt that phenomenon like HIV/AIDS whether we call it a pandemic or simply a growing incidence of more women and children being infected, it has to have better resources aside from all other funding coming from all around. That definitely has to be done. It’s true that NACO does not have the adequate resources, so more and more government resources have to go in this effort. What major challenges do you see for the government? I think that the government becomes a vehicle for pumping more and more money. In the health sector we see that it’s not just that you pump money and you can look after the public health of over a billion people in the country. I think the strategy has to be very focused and innovative. The people who are held in very high esteem in public life will have to come forward honestly and give their support and endorsement to infected people to overcome the stigma and the shame. Why to fear pain? A very sympathetic, right from the heart, approach is needed. What strategy should be followed in HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns? It has to be very high profile and much more focused. Also it’s important to draw the attention of men to the problem of women and children and awakening their conscience that they become the vehicles of the disease. It should be not only confined to sex workers and just going to red light areas and distributing condoms to the women but also aimed at women of middle class or upper middle class or upper class, because it is as much of a time bomb waiting to explode. What role new technologies can play? The Internet, computer and the entire mass media have to really converge in these kinds of efforts. Sympathetic listening is also required. It’s good to connect people to share their feelings, views and experiences. But the human touch is always important. Quite often people say that new technologies are gender biased. What is your opinion? Now a number of young girls are using new technologies. I do not know about housewives. Also now villages are being connected. It’s only a matter of time. The technology may be gender biased now but it will improve in future. How important is mainstreaming gender into all health programmes? Absolutely! More than mainstream, you really bring women and children into top focus. Everything is so male centric. I try to bring gender into every effort at planning commission including the budget. What impacts will the new patent regime have on drug prices? We want to make anti-retroviral therapy freely available but that is not easy and it’s not affordable. We have to bring private sector in and develop public- private sector partnership. It’s really a concern that the prices suddenly may go up. It’s a huge problem. I do not know how we are going to deal with it. I am not sure at this point of time. Finally, what commitment do you see from the planning commission? It’s a difficult question. I think there is an extreme amount of awareness, consciousness and desire among my colleagues at planning commission to actually do something for the people. Every time the subject of HIV comes in the internal meeting of planning commission everybody, no matter what area they look after, wants to do their best. So I think the commitment is there and we will make all efforts for resource mobilisation.  AboutSyeda Hameed: She is Member, Planning Commission, Government of India.

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