The Union health ministry has launched the Rs.2,550-crore National AIDS Control Support Project (NACSP) which is aimed to help and accelerate the country’s AIDS prevention programme by targeting high risk groups like Female Sex Workers, men who have sex with men and Injecting Drug Users. The World Bank is supporting this project with an interest-free loan of Rs.1,275 crore.
The project would also support the planned expansion and consolidation of tailored interventions for other at-risk populations, including migrant workers and truckers, which play a critical role in the transmission dynamics of HIV in the country.
The NACSP will contribute to three of the five strategies of the National AIDS Control Programme-IV, the prevention component, the behaviour change component and the institutional strengthening component. The two other components, namely, the provision of care, treatment and support to people living with HIV and AIDS (PLWHA) and strategic information management systems (SIMS), including disease surveillance, will be supported by the national budget, with technical and financial support from other donors.
The main support of the project will be provided for the scaling up of HIV prevention interventions, with a focus on the high impact and cost-effective targeted interventions for population groups at high risk, and part of Information Education and Communication (IEC) including behaviour change and demand generation. The Project will also support further strengthening of its project management including human resource support and technical support for TIs. By scaling up targeted interventions and prevention services, it is estimated that the project will cover about 90 percent of the high risk groups and avert about three million new infections by 2017.
The project will also support the Department of AIDS Control in undertaking prevention programmes as well as expand communication and advocacy programmes that promote safe behaviour and discourage stigma and discrimination against people living with HIV and AIDS.