Index of Paper Presentations for the Parallel Sessions - Academy of ...

epicentre of the epidemic—high risk groups such as international business travellers, commercialsex workers, men having sex with men, professional blood donors, and injecting drug users.Other initiatives were oriented towards creating awareness in the high risk groups through massmedia (e.g. TV and radio talk shows), interpersonal media (e.g. family health awarenesscampaigns), and outdoor media (e.g. wall painting and kiosks, street plays and mela festivals)(NACO, 2004).The second phase was launched during the period 1999-2006 and focused on thereduction of the spread of the infection across the country and the enhancement of India‘scapacity to respond to the epidemic. NACP-II was decentralized to the state level with theestablishment of the SACS (State AIDS Prevention and Control Societies). Another strategicdecision was to target not only the high risk groups but the general public as well. Although therewere efforts to bring low cost care (home-base and community-base care), voluntary testing,strengthening the technical, managerial and the financial sustainability of various levels ofgovernments participating in the programme; the reality was that many of these services andinitiatives failed to reach villages. As one senior official with an international capacity-buildingservices agency put it ―…unfortunately what has happened is the epidemic has moved faster than[decentralization]. So you have people right in the villages who require services but the servicedelivery has only reached the district hospitals‖. For NACP-II, World Bank provided US$191million, USAID funded the AVERT project in Maharashtra; the Department for InternationalDevelopment of U.K. funded with US$30 million the implementation of projects in AndhraPradesh, Gujarat, Kerala and Orissa (Kartikeyan et al., 2007; Ramamurthy, 2003).The third phase of NACP is currently being implemented and covers the period from2007 to 2012. Its primary objective is to halt and reverse the epidemic by integrating programmesfor prevention, care, support, and treatment (NACO, 2006). Four pillars are considered toaccomplish these objectives: prevention in high risk groups and general population, expandingthe care support and treatment of those living with HIV/AIDS, strengthening the ability at