After toying with the idea for some time now, the Catholic Church has ruled out making compulsory the pre-marital AIDS test for its members, but will encourage counselling services ahead of marriages.

"There is no point in making it compulsory, though some quarters have suggested it. If it is made compulsory, it is difficult to stop people from managing certificates from centres of their choice and manipulating. Instead, we will encourage counselling to the aspirants,'' a spokesman of the Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) told Pharmabiz.

Some of the Dioceses in Kerala have been propagating the idea of introducing mandatory HIV test before the marriage for the aspirants, on the ground that there were instances of HIV-positive people hiding the condition before the marriage. The Church already runs three-day pre-marriage guidance course to educate the youth on the Church teachings on marriage and family planning.

The Church, in association with other agencies like Arya Samaj and Art of Living, will promote health education in the schools. A school and adolescent programme impart health education is being prepared and will be ready by October. Field studies are going on and it will be implemented in 15,000 institutions, Commission for Healthcare executive secretary Rev Dr Alex Vadakkumthala said. The commission, an arm of the CBCI, is the coordinating agency responsible for the health policy of the Church and its more than 5000 health institutions.

The Church will implement a Rs 45-crore HIV-AIDS programme in five states and set up 45 community centre. They will come up in the States of West Bengal, Orissa, Chhathisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and Gujarat.

As another initiative on the AIDS front, a diploma course on HIV and Family Education will be introduced by the IGNOU-CBCI chair for Health and Social Welfare. In collaboration with the Indira Gandhi Open University, the Chair already is running three courses.

The Catholic Church runs six medical colleges, 764 hospitals, 2575 dispensaries, 115 medical training centres, 61 centres for alternative systems of care, 116 non-formal health initiatives, 74 care and support centres and lots of mobile and healthcare ventures, as per the list of 2003.