The year 2008 may well ring in some good news for around 2.5 million people living with HIV and AIDS in the country. Indian Railways is considering offering fare concessions, as high as 75 per cent, to HIV/AIDS patients travelling on its network. The move, quietly in the works at Rail Bhavan, is being regarded as one of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav's big-ticket ideas for the forthcoming Rail Budget in February.

While the original demand relates to offering fare concessions to HIV/AIDS patients in a bid to facilitate their travel to the National AIDS Control Organisation's (NACO) Antiretroviral Treatment (ATR) Centres offering treatment at subsidised rates at 127 locations across the country, Railways, it is reliably learnt, are mulling granting a blanket concession allowing HIV/AIDS patients to avail of the benefit whenever they travel on trains, irrespective of the purpose of their travel.

"The demand to offer concessions in fare to HIV and AIDS patients has been there for the past couple of years with even the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) seeking the benefit for these people. However, it is for the first time that the Ministry has taken up the proposal and started working out the modalities," a senior railway official told The Indian Express. With the next Rail Budget expected to be UPA Government's last, officials said that the move, considering it's populist potential, is almost set to make it to Lalu's Rail Budget speech.

Indian Railways already offer fare concessions ranging between 50-75 per cent to people having a host of medical conditions. Those covered under the concessions being offered include orthopaedically handicapped, paraplegic, blind, mentally challenged, those suffering from hearing and speech disorders, patients suffering from cancer, tuberculosis, leprosy, thalassemia, heart and kidney disorders and ostomy patients. Except for a few categories, these concessions are made available to one escort per patient.

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