AIDS counsel a call away

Palak Nandi - Jaipur

1051 has a special ring to it here. Run by the Health and Social Development Research Centre, the AIDS helpline has been the lifeline for 2.4 lakh callers since 2001. The helpline begun by the NGO’s secretary, Mridula Chandra, is now sponsored by the state AIDS Control Society.

“Lack of awareness had led to people actually being afraid of having sex. I realised this when I ran a helpline on my landline number in 1997. It was then that I decided that a full time AIDS helpline was essential,” says 42-year-old Chandra.

“There have been times when we received more than 10,000 calls in a month but our average is about 2,500-3,000 calls,” says Chandra. Most callers are between 20 and 35 years and most of them want to know if they might be carrying the virus but fear a test.

“In such cases we always try to make it clear that despite everything, we are no experts and it is best to get a test done and talk after taking a look at the reports.” Chandra does, however, have a technical assistant who attends to special queries.

“We are planning to expand the helpline to the state level, which is not only important but will also help in bringing about awareness in rural areas. Moreover, keeping in mind the changing times, there is a need to increase the phone lines and start something like a call centre to address to the queries. One of the biggest problems we face today is that the helpline is not accessible through the mobile network,’’ says Chandra.

TN villagers get digital identity

Biometric tracking gives a tamper proof identity to villagers

Jaya Menon - Chennai

Remote Gurrampeta, a tribal hamlet, seemed hardly the ideal place to distribute smart cards after an experiment with sophisticated personal tracking or access control systems. The backward village with 150 families was poverty-stricken and calamity prone. All that the tribals here wanted was a decent livelihood that would give them at least a meal a day. So, when Kris Dev...