Washington, DC, May 6, 2006—On the eve of World AIDS Orphans Day, a number of organizations, including the Stop HIV/AIDS in India Initiative (SHAII), US; Association for India’s Development, College Park, US; Global AIDS Alliance, US; and Gram Bharati Samiti (GBS), Jaipur and Snehadaan, Bangalore, India, are calling on the Indian government to take urgent measures to ensure care and treatment of orphans and vulnerable children.

While urging government officials to take prompt action to respond to the needs of orphans, Dr. Vineeta Gupta, Director of the Stop HIV/AIDS in India Initiative said, “World AIDS Orphans Day must be more than just another token observance. With 70,000 children in dire need of antiretroviral treatment and only 1,048 currently receiving such treatment, empty speeches and false promises are unacceptable.”

There are more than one million AIDS orphans in India. By conservative estimates, 250,000 children are infected with HIV. In 2005, there were at least 70,000 new pediatric HIV infections and 60,000 Indian children died of AIDS. While children account for 15% of new HIV infections, they represent only 4% of those on treatment through government-sponsored programs.

“The question is if India will provide care and treatment to its orphans as their right, or leave them to rely soley on the charity of the rich and privileged. The very least the Indian government can do is to issue clear guidelines for the treatment and care of OVC affected by HIV/AIDS and to adopt and implement comprehensive policies to address the OVC crisis,“ said Dr. Gupta.

The Indian government is failing in its constitutional obligation to provide efficient and affordable basic health care to all citizens, including health care for mothers and children. “Every year more than 60,000 HIV-infected children are born because the government is not providing preventive measures to infected mothers,“ noted Rajwinder Singh Bains, a renowned human rights lawyer and activist with the Punjab Human Rights Organization.

The National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) is in charge of formulating national policy to combat AIDS in India. But NACO’s inefficiency, delayed disbursement of grants, and over-centralized operations resulted in a rejection of India’s proposal for $217 million from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. NACO has largely ignored the issue of pediatric HIV/AIDS and has not yet released any pediatric treatment guidelines. Currently, NACO does not distribute pediatric antiretroviral drugs in any government-run treatment center.

While the AIDS epidemic rages on and the number of orphans and vulnerable children continues to grow, the tools to prevent and treat pediatric HIV/AIDS are available. With greater financial and political commitment from India’s government, the epidemic in children could be stopped completely.

Contact

Vineeta Gupta, Washington, DC, US, Ph: 202-789-0432 X 207, Email: guptahr@yahoo.com
R S Bains, Chandigarh, India, Ph: 91-172-2740865, Email: rsbains_22@yahoo.co.in