Fighting AIDS in India

The HIV/AIDS Campaign of the Indian Committee of Youth Organizations

The Indian Committee of Youth Organization (ICYO) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization committed to developing mutual cooperation and understanding among the different voluntary youth agencies, organizations, associations, groups and clubs that function in India. The objective of ICYO is to strengthen the existing youth agencies and foster the development of new agencies in the areas of youth mobilization for environmental preservation, rural community development, health, population, and cultural and national development.

Concerned with the threat of AIDS to young people, ICYO started campaigning to sensitize and mobilize people to implement AIDS prevention programmes in October 1987. The World Assembly of Youth (WAY) had at that time involved a number of youth organizations in the public debate on drug abuse prevention. AIDS was then not a topic for open discussion in India.

Recognizing that the participation of youth was essential for preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS, an intercountry workshop was organized in collaboration with the World Health Organization and WAY for the South and South-East Asian region. Doctors, researchers, social workers and youth workers discussed the need to develop strategies for combating the epidemic of HIV/AIDS.

ICYO learned about the reaction of young people to the epidemic through the workshop and explored ways of developing interventions by youth for youth. The workshop confirmed that there was enough capacity among youth NGOs to carry out work on HIV/AIDS prevention. It was also felt that youth could play a role in protecting AIDS victims from stigmatization and discrimination. Fifteen youth action plans for combating HIV/AIDS were finalized at the workshop, including advocacy utilizing the mass media through information, education and communication strategies, and by identifying different strategies for different target groups (urban youth, rural youth and hard-to-reach youth, such as young sex workers and street children).

In June 1992, ICYO decided to focus on the twin epidemics of drugs and HIV/AIDS in a concerted manner, fully mobilizing its network at the grassroots and international levels. The first set of activities was a campaign to sensitize the workers of the member youth organizations to the need to learn about AIDS and include components of HIV/AID prevention education in their programmes. ICYO produced two sets of posters for this purpose. The first poster carried the message: "Youth campaign to contain deadly HIV virus" and an illustration of four hands clutching each other, symbolizing solidarity, strength and mutual respect. The poster also carried a gender sensitive message with two hands wearing bangles, indicating the equal participation of women, mutual respect and sensitivity towards the problem, and gender issues involved in HIV/AIDS prevention education. The results from pre-testing the posters were good.

A separate set of posters have been prepared which target semi-literate and illiterate youth in rural and urban communities. In addition to disseminating the posters, the ICYO documentation centre collects books, journals, newspapers, pamphlets, videos, reports and periodicals on the subject, which are made available to youths. ICYO also introduced its services to subscribers of its newsletter by inserting a one-page announcement of the AIDS prevention campaign.

Further, in order to reach out to the most vulnerable segment of the population, a few small community-based formal and informal groups were constituted, comprising residents of the slums in New Delhi. This exercise was aimed at testing the validity of the ICYO strategies on small and informal groups.

The first one-day workshop for youth NGOs was organized in April 1993, in which 12 youth NGOs participated. The programme provided the youth leaders of the local NGOs with knowledge, skills and self-confidence for communicating with their peers about HIV/AIDS.

The various organizations prepared action plans based on the needs of their own community. Some organizations suggested mass education programmes, while others came up with innovative ideas for communicating with hard-to-reach groups and popularizing the use of condoms. Groups developed innovative methods of spreading the message, including street plays, puppets, "AIDS Game" and "Condom Dip", a game that provides winners with free packets of condoms.

At the same time, ICYO conducted a series of consultations with youth leaders to formulate effective means of communication and programme development for AIDS prevention. The consultations facilitated the generation of new ideas, while also helping to reduce fears and overcome emotional and social barriers among the participating youth leaders. Further, it helped the participants to gain more knowledge about AIDS and motivated them to work on various aspects of the HIV/AIDS problem.

ICYO has generated impressive results, including finalizing the Youth Agenda for South and South-East Asia and the initiation of national activities based on the Youth Agenda, the strengthening of documentation on HIV/AIDS, the preparation of campaign materials including posters, street plays and AIDS games, the creation of a network among youth NGOs and the introduction of peer educators. As the next step, ICYO plans to set up drop-in centres to provide information, advice and reassurance to people concerned about AIDS-related issues in slum areas. It is also planning to start AID-prevention training programmes, including one targeted for women.

This article is based on HIV and AIDS Responses of Youth -- Learning Experiences from Macro and Micro Interventions by Youth, Akash Gualia, Indian Committee of Youth Organizations, 1994.