Pakistan: Gender-specific Measures Stressed to Control HIV. 16/6/10

Women are usually the silent victims of the epidemic

Islamabad -- Terming lack of awareness and limited access to health facilities as the main cause of increase in the number of HIV positive women, Adviser to Prime Minister on Women Development Yasmeen Rehman has called for collaborative gender specific measures at all levels to control the disease that is fast turning into an epidemic.

She was speaking at a meeting held to mark the completion of 'APWA's Women and HIV Project.' All Pakistan Women Association (APWA) in collaboration with UNAIDS and UNFPA undertook the project titled 'Partnership Building with Women's Organisations and Networks and Development and Implementation of a Strategy for Scaling up of HIV/AIDS PreventionWomen in Pakistan.' Major objective of the project was to build capacity and create awareness among NGOs and CBOs on HIV and AIDS and its relationship with gender in Pakistan.

The project had two phases. In first phase a series of eight workshops were organised at provincial and district level. On the basis of the experience of the first phase, APWA designed the second phase of the project. In this phase, the organisation held livelihood and skills development training programmes for the spouses of drug users, migrants and women living with HIV and AIDS at Sargodha, Faisalabad and Lahore. The basic objective of this meeting was to report the outcome of the project in order to start a meaningful discussion on the way forward to address the main issues of HIV and AIDS among women and girls in Pakistan.

Also a founding member of Parliamentary Forum on HIV and AIDS, Yasmeen Rehman said till the end of 2009, there were 27,000 women infected with AIDS and HIV and the number is increasing day by day. Only ten years ago, she said that HIV and AIDS was a low prevalence disease that has turned into a concentrated epidemic.

Highlighting the role played by social mindset in the spread of the disease, Yasmeen Rehman said that because of their submissive social role, women are not able to demand their spouses to use preventative measure. "A bill that will make it mandatory to aspiring husband and wife to attach health certificate with marriage contract (nikkah nama) is in the pipeline and has been referred to committee for review," she informed the participants.

She further said that the issue should be discussed more frequently at every forum as limited or no information about HIV prevention in women and fewer resources to take preventive measures have contributed towards increase in women living with HIV in Pakistan. She ensured all out support of the Ministry of Women Development (MoWD) for the provision of required prevention, treatment, care and support services for the most vulnerable women and women living with HIV specifically and in general for all women.

The advisor revealed that in year 2001, at the UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, Pakistan was amongst over 180 countries that agreed that the gender equality and women's empowerment are fundamental to reducing girls and women's vulnerability to HIV and AIDS. "With specific reference to Pakistan, the concluding observations of the Convention on Elimination of all kind of Violence against Women (CEDWA) committee necessitate the government of Pakistan to indicate measures if any, towards integration of gender perspective in combating and prevention of HIV and AIDS in the perspective of extreme vulnerability of women and girls to the disease.

"The MoWD is also committed to give its input to the draft Policy and Law on HIV and AIDS to include women's issues and will advocate these being finalised and approved by the relevant approving bodies and institutions," she added.

Senior Vice President (National) and Chairperson APWA Islamabad Dr. Sabiha H. Syed said that women are usually the silent victims of the epidemic and stressed the need to initiate more women specific activities in national AIDS control policy keeping in mind their vulnerability and access to health services.

Sharing recommendations that came out from the workshops, she said that women victims had suggested easy loans and market for the sale of products made by the victims. She said that more training centres should be opened up for such women so that they can earn for their families and can become a productive citizen of the societ Published by HT Syndication with permission from Right Vision News. For more information on news feed please contact Sarabjit Jagirdar at htsyndication@hindustantimes.com