The Hindu Business Line : Dravid to build the anti-AIDS wall for Gates Foundation

Avahan, the India AIDS initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has roped in the Indian cricket team's vice-captain to help dispel the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS, besides promoting safe behaviour, particularly among young people.

Mr Ashok Alexander, Director, Avahan, told Business Line that Dravid had been inducted into the organisation recently and Avahan would undertake print and electronic campaigns to spread awareness on the illness. He would also act as a magnet to attract more sportspersons and celebrities to the cause, he said.

Avahan was formed after the tech-tycoon Bill Gates visited India in late 2002, when he pledged a support of $100 million towards the India AIDS initiative. This amount was subsequently scaled-up to $200 million (about Rs 920 crore) and at present, up to $114.5 million (about Rs 526 crore) has been approved towards supporting projects in six Indian States where the disease was highly prevalent.

Mr Alexander said that the money was being cleared "six months at a time," to facilitate the monitoring of the use of the funds by the respective non-governmental organisations. Meanwhile, Avahan is also looking to partner with corporates individually and as part of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

He picks the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and the Tatas as two success stories, in terms of corporates doing work to spread the awareness on the disease. "IOC has allowed its retail-pumps to become centres of information and support on HIV/AIDS. And since petrol-bunks are located on the highways, it helps reach the truckers and other population who may be at risk of exposure to the illness," he said.

But by far, Indian corporates are not doing enough to spread awareness on the illness, Mr Alexander said. Outlining how corporates could make a difference, he said: "They could offer infrastructure, as was done by IOC. Advocacy, where corporate chiefs speak out on the illness and exhibit leadership in dispelling the stigma. They could lend their skills, since marketing and distribution are at the core of the activity of organisations working in this segment and corporates could help them manage their affairs. Finally, corporates could have more work-place programmes where the employee population is educated on the same."

Avahan is also talking to pharmaceutical companies such as Ranbaxy and Cipla, he said, for medicines used to treat sexually transmitted illnesses.

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