Stating that India was witnessing the “stabilisation of the HIV epidemic”, Union Health Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss today favoured legalising homosexuality and removing discrimination against other vulnerable sections like sex workers to contain the spread of the virus.
Addressing the 17th International Conference on AIDS in Mexico City, the Minister expressed his strong support for the draft legislation on HIV which is currently with the Law Ministry.
“Structural discrimination against those who are vulnerable to HIV such as sex workers and MSM must be removed if our prevention, care and treatment programmes are to succeed,” he said. “Section 377 of the IPC, which criminalises men who have sex with men, must go,” he added.
“India’s dedicated focus on HIV prevention is fetching dividends. We are seeing the beginning of the stabilisation of the HIV epidemic in India,” said Ramadoss. Saying that the key to overcome the HIV epidemic was to take the services to those on the margins of society, he added, “we can only do that in an enabling environment”.
with PTI
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