India to make
"safe zones" to educate migrants about HIV

India will create "safe spaces" along migration routes in cities to protect migrant workers from contracting HIV, reports Reuters, U.K.

The government plans to monitor migrant concentrations in cities and provide educational programs about HIV for the migrants. The "safe spaces" will also set up HIV-testing centers and distribute condoms. India has an estimated 5.7 million people living with the virus, and migrants are considered a high-risk group.

The new plan against AIDS will focus on the 12 to 15 million people who migrate from their villages to high HIV-prevalence cities and back over a short period of time. Experts claim the virus is spreading to the country villages because many male migrants from the countryside have sex with prostitutes in cities and later infect their wives. Over half of Indians living with HIV are in rural areas.

India is also hoping to increase the number of government health centers that distribute free AIDS medicines from 101 to 121 by March.

The National AIDS Control Organisation of India says that as many as 86% of Indians believed to be infected are not aware that they have the virus. (The Advocate)