Oprah Winfrey is going for a voluntary HIV/AIDS test and certainly, it has set an impeccable example to thousands of people round the world that there should be no hesitation in coming forward and doing so. After all, it is for our safety.
However, a survey held in six states of India shows that people from low-income group are still having quite lackadaisical attitude about deadly HIV/AIDS. However, before moving further let’s have a look at the facts that hanged out of this survey.
• Four percent of the people from higher income group went for voluntary counseling and testing for HIV/AIDS whereas this percentage was just one per cent for the people coming from lower income group.
• Most condom using states were Assam and Uttar Pradesh while Karnataka fell in the category of the sates with lowest condom use.
• Survey roofed about 52 per cent males and 48 per cent females.
• Highest number of women who went for voluntary counseling was reported in states like Maharashtra and Karnataka.
A look at these facts confirms the fact that in developing countries like India people who constitute lower-income group are having lackadaisical attitude about deadly HIV/AIDS. On the other hand, people from higher-income group have been reported constituting a higher percentage of people going for voluntary HIV/AIDS test and counseling.
If we come out of the conglomeration of these facts representing India and look at the whole situation in a wider aspect even then we find that HIV/AIDS is more prevalent in countries where illiteracy, ignorance is comparatively higher. Several African and Asian countries confirm this fact.
Therefore, blaming illiteracy and ignorance for playing a key role in the continuous rise of HIV/AIDS cases would not be wrong. In fact, saying that illiteracy and ignorance are the two major pillars that the apparition of deadly HIV/AIDS is standing on would not be wrong because due to this ignorance these people fail to understand the intrinsic worth of voluntary HIV/AIDS counseling, as a result keep blind eye to HIV/AIDS.
Secondly, we should not forget that poverty is the sister of both illiteracy and ignorance and these three usually come flocking together. Moreover, it has been found that people afflicted with poverty usually give cold shoulder to the importance of voluntary HIV/AIDS counseling and safe sex practices because these people mostly find themselves so desperately embroiled with poverty or financial crisis that the importance of the methods aiming at curbing HIV/AIDS looks worthless.
Therefore, I can dare say that if we are really concerned about battling aids in a right and exquisite way then we shall have to target poverty, illiteracy and ignorance first. Only then, we can subjugate the apparition of the deadly HIV/AIDS.
Image credit: Signs of the last day
Via: DNA India
