The Hindu : Opinion / News Analysis : AIDS threatens India's progress

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 29, 2004

Opinion

Opinion - News Analysis

AIDS threatens India's progress

By Hilary Benn

Even for a child of the 1950s, long walks and Indian visionaries have as much resonance in the United Kingdom as in India. I can only imagine Mahatma Gandhi through history books and the recollections of my father who, when he was a child, met him when he came to London for the Round Table Conference. This Wednesday, December 1, the 16th World AIDS Day, I shall walk just a few hundred yards of the "Walk for Life." It is a colourful metaphor for the journey on which India has already embarked to tackle the challenge of HIV and AIDS.

Some of the world's most encouraging development progress in the last 50 years has been seen in India. This country's huge successes and its equally large challenges are encapsulated in remarkable statistic: over 300 million Indians have been lifted out of poverty in the last 20 years, but over 300 million Indians still remain below the international `one dollar-a-day' poverty line. Of these, around 5 million are living with the HIV virus.

During my four-day visit to Delhi and Hyderabad, I will discuss some of the important challenges facing India today, including health and education. The talks will celebrate India's successes in fighting poverty, and focus on how best to accelerate progress in tackling those challenges that remain.

The UK stands by India's side in this task. Our development programme in India is our largest in the world; it is worth £250 million this year and £280 million next. It is built around a strong partnership with the Government of India and its 10th Plan development targets, and includes support to nationwide programmes in key sectors and work in Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal. We work alongside the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and UN agencies. The political commitment, leadership, and planning comes from the Government of India. But in a globalised world, where we are all interconnected, it is partnership at every level — global, regional, national, and local — that will be the key to development success in India.

AIDS is the biggest threat to that success. The UK supports the Government's National AIDS Control Programme, to the tune of £123 million until 2007. As well as supporting Government initiatives, UK funds have also launched a Sexual Health Resource Centre, and promoted the availability of condoms in five of the highest priority Northern states. They have also been behind mass media campaigns, including the award-winning detective series Jasoos Vijay, with its 150 million audience on Doordarshan on Sunday nights. `Vijay' himself received 38,000 letters and over 15,000 emails at the end of the programme's first series. It will be through millions of Indians knowing more about AIDS, and how to prevent it, that the disease will be overcome in India. The new Government has stepped up its efforts on AIDS. The pandemic can be overcome, especially if we can see in India the same combination of prevention, treatment, education and vibrant leadership that has already been so successful in countries like Uganda, Senegal, Thailand and Brazil. We know what works, and it can work here.

Other health activities on which the UK is working with the Government of India include a polio vaccination programme that has helped set India on track to eradicate the disease in the next couple of years, and a sanitation programme — carried out in 12,000 villages and 13,000 schools across India — to knock out water-borne diseases.

We are also providing funds to support the Government's plans to reach the point where 23 million children between the ages of 6 and 14 who are currently not in school, get into a classroom with a teacher. We have provided loans for small businesses through the Small Industries Development Bank for India, and support for NGOs in India's 100 poorest districts.

From Rajghat to the Gandhi Memorial, and from one challenge to another, the UK continues to walk alongside India.

(The writer is the U.K. Secretary of State for International Development.)

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