Alang (bhavnagar),May 27: Health workers have often warned of PRECISELY SUCH a scenario. A migrant worker population, illiterate and ignorant, living away from families; an ideal breeding ground for HIV. The Alang shipyard here meets all the requirements, and the results are showing.

A recent ``confidential'' report prepared by Dr Niloo Vaishnav, Honorary Director in the AIDS Cell, Bhavnagar Blood Bank, indicates the shipyard is sitting on an AIDS bomb. It recorded that the number of HIV-positive cases reported at the bank till May 21 this year was a terrifying 167. Two incidents come on an average from Alang every month. Of the 890 workers surveyed at the shipyard, only 17 per cent had a ``faint idea'' of AIDS. Worse, only around 10 per cent were aware of any preventive measures against the dreaded killer.

The labourers are mostly from Orissa, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Maharashtra. the report found, were too poor to visit their families back home and either went to the red-light districts of Surat or the adjoining areas to fulfil their sexual needs.

According to the report, a large number of women in the villages of Mahua taluka practised prostitution. Alarmingly, 80 per cent of them were found to be either HIV positive or suffering from AIDS. Dr Vaishnav told The Indian Express that some dhabas of the area employ women ``during the night'' who double up as sex workers.

What has compounded the problem is the pathetic level of AIDS awareness among the workers. Ramanand Yadav, 23, from Bihar, a ``cutter'' at one of the yards in Sosiya, does not know what AIDS is. When explained the nature of the disease, he waved his hand in irritation and retorted: ``How should I know? It's never happened to me. Jo galat kaam kartey hain unhiko puchiye (Ask those who do such bad things).'

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.