Centre cuts AIDS fund by 65%

CHENNAI: Battling HIV has just gotten tougher for the states. After a delay of nearly a year, the Cabinet committee, on Friday, gave its nod for implementing phase IV of the National AIDS Programme with a financial sanction of 2550 crore. This is a mere 35% of the funding it gave in the last three phases of the National Aids Control Project.
Health officials have been instructed to expect sizeable cutbacks in their programmes.“Our staff across the state will be cut down by half,” said an official. “We also expect some reduction in salaries,” he said. Moreover, National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) has mandated that NGOs may now only conduct awareness programmes, rather than assist the government in providing support and care. “Nutritional support has reduced and the Centre has suggested we rely on existing state welfare schemes to help patients,” said the official.
So far, funding for this project came from USAID, Bill Gates Foundation and the World Bank. When the Phase III ended last year, the Centre had to dip into its coffers for Phase IV in May 2011. During this transition phase, no funds were forthcoming and many centres struggled for months. It is only now that the Centre has approved the sum, but with a huge cutback. Social workers worry that unless enough funds are pumped in, it will be hard to maintain status quo.
“Now that NGOs have been asked to do only awareness programmes, the follow-up procedure for Anti-Retroviral Therapy patients will be inadequate,” said P Kousalya of South India Positive People’s Network. “A lot of HIV-related work involves home visitswhere they persuade the patient to come in for treatment. Since the government does not have such widespread infrastructure, NGOs do it in many places. Now this will be curtailed.”