India

The Problem

There are estimated to be 2.4 million people living with HIV in India. At the end of the 1990s, around 200,000 people were dying from AIDS each year and this peaked at 400,000 per year in 2006. India’s response has been a significant scale up which has included targeted interventions among high risk groups, care, treatment and support services and voluntary counselling and testing (VCT) (1). There are still some issues to address:

• Young women are 2.5 times more likely to be infected with HIV than young men.
• UNAIDS estimates that approximately 50% of HIV-positive people are unaware of their status.
• The estimated HIV prevalence among MSM in India is 7.3 % compared to 0.3% among the general population.

Our Response

EJAF has been supporting programmes in India since 1996. These have included many small grants to support grassroots organizations working to provide direct care to people living with HIV as well as large strategic grants to address human rights issues and access to treatment.

Our Strategy

EJAF’s recent approach in India is to fund programmes in low or medium prevalence states to strengthen local or national provision and to scale up to address issues:

Organisations/networks of People Living with HIV (PLWH)

Programmes which empower PLWH to play a key role in the development of services, improve their quality of life and exercise self-determination.

 

Addressing the Needs of Injecting Drug Users (IDUs)

Programmes that aim to mitigate the impact of HIV/AIDS on HIV positive IDUs, their partners and families through a range of interventions. 

 

Addressing the needs of women 

Strategic programmes that aim to decrease the vulnerability of women and girls to HIV and to mitigate its impact on them. These include:

 

• Providing integrated services that include sexual reproductive health, HIV testing/treatment and prevention of mother-to-child transmission.
• Legal/human rights programmes that empower women infected, affected and at risk of HIV to make informed choices and protect themselves. 
• Providing high impact food security and income generation programmes.

Programmes for men who have sex with men (MSM)  

Programmes providing information, treatment, psychosocial support, and legal advice to MSM in order that they are able to make informed choices regarding HIV, access appropriate treatment, and exercise their rights

1. UNAIDS 2009