A NEW BEGINNING: Devadasis lighting the lamp to inaugurate Project Samastha in the presence of Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and others, in Bangalore on Wednesday. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

Bangalore: No less a person than Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy is joining the campaign to dispel the stigma that surrounds HIV/AIDS and people who live with the illness.

At the launch of Project Samastha, a comprehensive HIV prevention and care programme, he announced, to a round of spontaneous applause, that his next village sojourn on January 23, would be with an HIV/AIDS affected person in a village in Bagalkot district.

Project Samastha will address the needs of the underserved rural population in 12 districts and three major cities of the State.

It is estimated that Karnataka has more than five lakh people with HIV and/or AIDS and the numbers are growing in rural areas. Twenty districts, several of them in north Karnataka, are high-prevalence with affected persons constituting 2.5 per cent of the total population. Karnataka is the only State with a rural prevalence exceeding that of the urban areas. The $22 million project will be implemented over a period of five years. The districts that the project will focus on are Bangalore Rural, Tumkur, Kolar, Davangere, Bellary, Gulbarga, Raichur, Koppal, Dharwad, Bijapur, Bagalkot and Belgaum.Samastha is an integrated HIV and AIDS prevention and care programme in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. It is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The University of Manitoba, Canada, will monitor and implement the project with the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust that provides high-quality technical support to the programme. The Chief Minister said that the illness was threatening to undercut some commendable performance in other development indices and export economy .

By his visit to an affected family, he said that he wanted to send out a message that nobody has the right to discriminate against them. Commending Asha Ramaiah, founder-member, Karnataka Network of Positive People, for facing the problem with courage, he exhorted the HIV/AIDS affected people not to get disheartened and stand up against the odds.

Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa released a brochure on Samastha. He warned that the Government would deal seriously with those who violated the human rights of the HIV/AIDS affected people.

Health and Family Welfare Minister R. Ashok presided over the function. He appealed to the people involved in the task of prevention and care programme to take the message to the villagers.

Mission director of USAID George Deikun commended Mr. Kumaraswamy for his decision to stay in the home of a HIV/AIDS affected person during his next visit to the villages. Ms. Asha said that she was unhappy that even educated people such as doctors did not know how to treat the affected people. He added that her organisation was engaged in educating them on the need to bridge the gap between the two and allow them to live with dignity.

Vandana Gurnani, Project Director, Samastha welcomed the gathering. Digvir S. Jayas of the University of Manitoba spoke. Stephen Moses, Country Director proposed a vote of thanks. A group of Devadasis from north Karnataka rendered a folk song.

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