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Aids campaigners warn Navratri revellers looking for sex
October 18, 2004
Education minister Anandiben Patel hates to be reminded of her comment that
number of abortions rise in Gujarat a couple of months after Navratri. But,
four years after the state's women and child welfare minister made this
statement, little has changed as NGOs take it upon themselves to turn the
Navratri celebrations into a one big classroom for sex education.
As the state kicked off its nine nights of gay abandon on Thursday, talking
about birds and bees is not a taboo. If plans are afoot to approach couples
headed towards garba venues for a ‘chat' on safe sex, condoms are being
distributed freely and condom vending machines installed in hotels.
"That sexual activity is on the rise during Navratri is no more a secret," says
Lakshman Malodiya, director of Ahmedabad AIDS Control Society (AACS). The
society, anticipating a rise in unwanted pregnancies and sexually-transmitted
diseases, has asked the 26 NGOs in Ahmedabad working in the field of AIDS
awareness to directly address the youth, the high risk group, by hitting garba
venues and advocate safe sex.
"We do not want to hurt their sentiments but wish to empower them by offering
them advice and condoms," he adds.
"Our volunteers will be talking to youngsters hanging out at restaurants and
outside clubs on the SG Highway in Ahmedabad, advocating safe sex measures,"
says Manuni Upadhyay, project director of KH Jani Charitable Trust.
"We are distributing pamphlets to couples spotted in the vicinity of garba
venues," says Bharat Kinariwala of Quality Circle, another NGO.
Extending condoms to the youth will be an important part of the campaign. In
Vadodara, Vikas Jyot Trust, an NGO, has installed condom vending machines in 25
hotels frequented by couples during Navratri. Even the room boys have been
asked to keep at least 10 condoms with them.
"Passing on condoms through room boys is more effective than even vending
machines. Over the past year, we have built relations with hotel managers and
room boys to achieve this," says the trust's project director Kamlesh Bhatt.
"Every Navratri,we have young girls in chaniya cholis walking in with boys,
looking for rooms to spend a couple of hours at night. I have stocked condoms
and pass them on to such couples along with the room keys and ask them to be
careful. At times, it works better than putting up a vending machine," says a
hotelier in Vadodara's Sayajigunj area.
NGOs in Surat have begun visiting schools and colleges to create AIDS
awareness. "We are making students realise the seriousness of the problem. It
is important to let them know that Navratri is a religious festival and should
be celebrated in the right spirit. Any wrong step out of sheer excitement can
destroy their life," says Geeta Shroff, president of Apmratiyu Nivaran Sangh,
an organisation working for the welfare of women in Surat.
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