NGOs battle for condoms in Sangli
The Sangli district in Western Maharashtra, which once was known as the capital of HIV, at least in the country, has recently redeemed itself and registered minimum rate of prevalence. However, possibilities of this landmark not being sustainable are fast emerging.
NGOs that work in the highly populated female sex workers (FSW) areas have not been receiving condoms by the Maharashtra State Aids Control Society (MSACS). In addition, they refuse to take condoms from the Target Intervention (TI) NGO Veshya Anyay Mukti Parishad (VAMP), as designated by MSACS, stating that they are not a government body and they won’t “beg”.
The MSACS claims that girls and women in these areas are not being tested and monitored for HIV, making the HIV status of the district precarious. The scarcity of condoms is nothing but a war of egos now.
Two NGOs, Veshya Mahila Aids Nirmulan Kendra (VMANK) and Sangli District Devdasi Mahila Vikas Mandal (SDDMVM) Miraj, alleged that since MSACS stopped providing them with condoms, they now have to spend their own money to procure them. Amirbi Shaikh of VMANK said, “MSACS is playing in the hands of bigger NGOs like VAMP, as they have means and connection, so they control MSACS.” Concurring with Shaikh, Shobha Awde of SDDMVM also said, “In the last six months, we have not been provided with condoms. This is clearly putting us at a great risk.”
As per National Aids Control Organisation (Naco) guidelines, a high-risk group (HRG) has to have minimum 400 people to receive a direct supply of condoms. According to MSACS, however, both the organisations have numbers lesser that, thus disqualifying them.
Joint director, TI, MSACS, Avsharan Kaur said, “Apart from the Naco guidelines, the two groups, which have been alleging neglect by the MSACS have not been testing the girls in their area nor providing us the relevant data to ascertain the usage of condoms in a period.”
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