GUJARAT, India - As a precaution against the spread of HIV/AIDS, officials in the normally-conservative western Indian state are encouraging the distribution of condoms in vulnerable areas, including theaters screening illegal adult movies.
Officials told the BBC News that the year-old operation is paying dividends, particularly at theatres in larger cities like Surat, where large number of migrant laborers come to work in its diamond and textile factories.
In its 2004 estimates, India's National Aids Control Organization (NACO) reported a significant increase in the number of HIV/AIDS cases reported in Gujarat.
"In our attempts to spread HIV/AIDS awareness, we study where our target groups live, the places they visit," Snehlata Bhatia, project manager of the program at Surat Municipal Corporation, told BBC News. "We are already working with the diamond industry and the builder's association and when we realized that a lot of migrant laborers were coming to these cinemas to watch porn films, we got in touch with these cinemas."
The theaters have been seen as a "vulnerable zone" due to their proximity to areas of prostitution.
According to the report, condoms are either handed out by volunteers and NGO workers or sold at the ticket counter. In some theatres, messages regarding safe sex are printed on the back of the tickets and short films on the subject are screened before the shows.
"Here, we are reaching out to two major high-risk groups and we don't only provide them with condoms to promote safe sex, but also give them information about HIV/Aids and other sexually-transmitted diseases," Dinesh Prajapati, a member of the Sargam Manav Seva Charitable Trust, an NGO working on the project, told the BBC News. "People now don't hesitate to buy condoms from the ticket counter or the tobacco shop. Many times they come and talk to our social workers about sexually-transmitted diseases, seek advice on treatment and where to get it and now some of them even attend our group meetings."
Authorities are now trying out new ways and methods of spreading the message to the masses.
Entertainment
- By
