Sandesh Prabhudesai
1 December 2002
Goa
plans to have a statewide referendum on making
HIV test mandatory before getting married.
Meanwhile, the voluntary testing
drive begins tomorrow, with chief minister Manohar
Parrikar and health minister Dr Suresh Amonkar
offering themselves for the testing.
According to Amonkar, the demand
in this regard should come from the people. "We
will then make it a law accordingly", he
states. Due to a common civil code with equal
property rights, no Goan here gets married without
registering the marriage.
Rina Ray, the health secretary,
has mooted the idea of a public referendum on
the issue, though her move has been opposed even
at the national level, stating that it would be
violation of a fundamental right for privacy.
"Every woman getting married
or going for a child has a right to know whether
her husband is HIV negative", she states.
Her viewpoint has however been now thrown open
for a public debate.
A proposal under consideration in
this regard was disclosed by the health minister
early January this year,
during the Assembly debate when Congress' state
opposition leader Pratapsing Rane made a suggesting
in this regard.
Meanwhile, the tourist state is
beginning a fortnight-long voluntary test drive
from 1 December, besides distributing booklets
on sex education as well as condoms and awareness
through panchayats.
As the large chunk of HIV-infected
persons are found to be from the age group of
15 to 24 years, the state has also relaxed the
provision of seeking consent of parents for such
testing, targeting around one million youngsters
living here.
"We want to remove that stigma
in such a way that a young boy approaches his
girl friend on a Valentines Day, stating proudly
that he is HIV negative", quips Dr Amonkar.
Though Goa figures much below with
hardly one per cent of the national average, the
tourist state is not prepared to take any chance
since the figure of HIV positives has already
crossed 10,000 for a tiny state of 1.3 millions.
As the highest number of HIV cases
are reported in the port town of Vasco, the BJP
government here is also thinking of rehabilitating
the sex workers at Baina formulating a special
social security scheme and persuading them to
leave the profession.
The drive, in the meanwhile, will
utilise all the health centres spread in the remotest
area of the health-conscious Goa and even by opening
condom outlets. "Counselling them before
as well as after the test will also be stressed
upon", states Ray.
She is however more worried about
the fact that the coastal state is surrounded
by four states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil
Nadu and Kerala, where large number of HIV cases
are reported.
"The credit for such a low
rate of HIV cases obviously goes to high literacy
rate and a well-knit health infrastructure. But
we have no capacity to absorb a calamity if it
breaks out", adds Ray. Her ultimate dream
is to make Goa an HIV negative state.
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