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Berhampur(Orissa):
Though the district of Ganjam has been in the news due to its place in the AIDS map of the country and the people of the district have to face an embarrassment for the obvious reason, yet the dreaded disease has spreading its tentacles through the infected people most of them are migrated labourers to other states, particularly to Surat in Gujarat from where the labourers do carry the virus.
The latest figure shows that out of the total number of people carrying HIV, around 43 percent belongs to Ganjam district and 90 percent of the HIV/AIDS affected people are migrated labourers.
Despite efforts by the state government through its agency named Orissa State AIDS Control Sell (OSACS) which has been working in the field of AIDS control and prevention in the state, the number of infected people has been in the rise through the years.
If the numbers and figures are taken into account, then it seems that the efforts of the state through its nodal agency are futile.
Control and prevention of AIDS remains in the posters and pamphlets that too at a huge cost spent by the state through various agencies and NGOs which are taking all the money meant for the purpose, yet their work remains only in arranging meetings in hotels, seminars attended learned persons and organizing public rallies engaging school children.
All these efforts to create awareness among the people seems to be meaningless as the migrated labourers who are believed to be most prone to be infected with the dreaded disease are not aware as their numbers has been increasing day by day gradually in the state, particularly the migrated labourers of the Ganjam district which has been placed eighth most affected district in the country.
As per the latest reports, out of the 14 districts of the country most affected with the AIDS/HIV the Ganjam district is being placed eighth and has been graded 'A' status as more than one percent people of the total population are infected with HIV.
The total number of the HIV infected people in the state is 10862 out of which 4296 are from Ganjam alone. Total AIDS patients in the state are 1020 out of which 363 are from the Ganjam district. Total number of death owing to AIDS in the state is 803, out of which around 32 percent (293) from Ganjam district.
Most alarming and bitter truth is that though the state has been giving all efforts to prevent and control AIDS/HIV in the rural areas as most of the patients and infected people are migrated labourers, their number has been rising and their total number raises to 90 percent of the total AIDS/HIV infected people living in the district.
These 90 percent infected people are from the rural areas that use to migrate to other states in search of livelihood. And it is an established fact that majority of the migrated labourers are from the Aska and Hinjilicut block of the district. These labourers migrate to other states particularly to Surat in Gujarat to earn livelihood, but to the misfortune and bad name of the district they do return with HIV/AIDS.
