ALAPPUZHA: The Kerala State AIDS Control Society (KSACS) has demanded that a comprehensive module of AIDS awareness programmes with students' participation should be made part of the curriculum. On the eve of World AIDS Day on Thursday, it asked the government to reshape the present adolescent health awareness programme in schools with supplementary tasks, including individual projects, interaction with doctors and meeting the victims.
The programme was included in the revised curriculum in class VIII and X in the previous academic year. Mr G. Sunil Kumar, joint director, information education and communication, KSACS, told Deccan Chronicle that the programme would be strengthened with the added modules of competitive examinations and field experiences. Currently, it is being implemented with the support of resource teachers. The students should be involved in the programme, he said.
Other states like Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have launched HIV/AIDS education in most schools. A study by Human Rights Watch titled 'Future Forsaken: Abuses Against Children Affected by HIV/AIDS in India' says the majority of teachers avoid portions regarding AIDS/HIV. India's biological approach to sex education and HIV awareness does not address gender roles and sexuality, but only parenting, disease and abstinence.
It may be recalled that in February 2003, there was an incident of boycott of two HIV positive children in Kollam. The UNICEF launched a series of initiatives to remove the stigma associated with AIDS in the state. According to an AIDS education programme resource person, the teachers are shy of discussing the topic of condoms in classrooms. They make students believe that AIDS is a blood-based syndrome. Teachers don't say that people can get HIV by sex. "Kerala is a conservative and sexually-inhibited society," he said.
The state has witnessed a 60 percent drop in HIV cases over the last decade, according to KSACS. The number of HIV cases in the state was 2,627, including 1,151 women, in 2005. The figure rose to 3,972 by 2007 but it fell to 1,119 by October 2016. The district-wise data shows that 5,649 people tested positive for HIV in Thiruvananthapuram from 2002 to October 2016, followed by Thrissur (4,843) and Kozhikode (4,423). The figures for other districts are: Palakkad (2,580), Kottayam (2,484), Ernakulam (1,934), Kannur (1,641), Kasargod (1,376), Alappuzha (1,269), Kollam (1,075), Pathanamthitta (683), Malappuram (567), Idukki (431) and Wayanad (266).
