Report on
Two Days Workshop for
Sensitization of Co-operative Leaders
on
Prevention of Spread of HIV/AIDS
At
Cooperative Management Institute, Jaipur
20th & 21st February 2009
Organised by
Cooperative Management Institute, Jaipur
and
ICA-AP
Facilitated by
SMU-RSACS & MRU-SAATHII Jaipur
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Agenda of training:
Day First: 20.02.2009
Welcome of chief guests and participantsShri R.K. Anand, Principal, Institute of
Cooperative Management, Jaipur
Welcome speech Shri R.K. Anand, Principal, Institute of
Cooperative Management, Jaipur
Lighting of Lamp Chief guests
Objectives of the Workshop Ms. Savitri Singh, Advisor Gender
Programme, ICA-AP, New Delhi
Role of RSACS in Prevention and Control Dr. J.C. Gupta
of HIV
Inauguration Shri C.M. Meena, IAS, Pricipal Chief
Secretary, Cooperatives, Government of
Rajasthan
Introduction and expectations with Ms. Savitri Singh, Advisor Gender
workshop Programme, ICA-AP, New Delhi
Basics of HIV and the National AIDS Mr. Nahid Mohd., Networking, Advocacy
Control Programme and Linkages Coordinator, MRU,
SAATHII
Assessement of high risk behavior and Mr. Akshay Shrivastava, Sector
impact of Stigma and Discrimination on Coordinator- SMU, RSACS
the women, children, family, workplace,
nation and economy of the country
Mainstreaming of HIV Mr. Ashok Rai Singhani, Project Officer-
SMU, RSACS
Day: Second- 21.02.2009
Strategy for HIV/AIDS prevention and Mr. Krishna Gautam, Programme
control Manager, MRU, SAATHII
Group work Mrs. Madhu Sharma, Sector Coordinator,
SMU, RSACS
Chief guests:
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Shri C.M. Meena, IAS, Pricipal Chief Secretary, Cooperatives, Government of
•
Rajasthan
Ms. Savitri Singh, Advisor Gender Programme, ICA-AP, New Delhi
•
Dr. J.C. Gupta, Deputy Director, Blood Safety, RSACS
•
Ms. Firoza Bano, Chairman, Raj Laxmi Cooperative Bank, Jaipur
•
Shri R.K. Anand, Principal, Institute of Cooperative Management, Jaipur
•
Chair Person
Shri C.M. Meena, IAS, Pricipal Chief Secretary, Cooperatives, Government of Rajasthan
Resource Persons:
Ms. Savitri Singh, Advisor Gender Programme, ICA-AP, New Delhi
•
Mr.Ashok Raisinghani, Project Officer, State Mainstreaming Unit, RSACS
•
Mr. Krishna Gautam, Programme Manager, Mainstreaming Resource Unit, SAATHII,
•
Jaipur
Ms. Madhu Sharma, Sector Coordinator, State Mainstreaming Unit, RSACS
•
Mr. Akshaya Srivastava, Sector Coordinator, State Mainstreaming Unit, RSACS
•
Mr. Nahid Mohammed, Training Coordinator, Mainstreaming Resource Unit,
•
SAATHII, Jaipur
Participants
There were 58 participants in the training from different districts of Rajasthan and most of
them were the leaders of Cooperative Societies.
Background:
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The International Co-operative Alliance in Asia represents 53 co-operative ogranisations in
22 countries covering 520 million individual co-operative members. There are more than 5,
40,000 co-operatives in India with more than 23 million Co-operative members.
Sensitization of Co-operative leaders for creating political will is very important for
initiating community based programmes. Therefore, a state level training workshop with
the leadership of Co-operatives was organized at Cooperative Management Institute, Jaipur
on 20th & 21st February 2009.
Aim of the workshop
The aim of the Workshop was to sensitize Co-operative leadership and managers of the Co-
operatives about the sensitivity of the HIV/ AIDS and pronounced commitment from them
to bring out required facilities for spread of preventive education to reduce risk of HIV/
AIDS among the Co-operators.
Objective:
1. Orientation of the leders and managers about the issue.
2. Strategy for conducting HIV/ AIDS awareness programmes.
3. Framework for national action plan to implement the above referred strategy.
Duration: Two days
Welcome
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Mr. R.K. Anand welcome all the chief guests, representative from Mainstreaming Units and
the participants came from different districts of Rajasthan. He expressed his gratitude
towards Shri C. M. Meena, IAS, Principal Secretary Cooperatives, Dr. J. C. Gupta, Deputy
Director, RSACS, Ms. Savitri Singh, Consultant ICA-AP and Mrs. Firoza Bano, Chairman,
Raj Laxmi Cooperative Bank. Then he asked
all the chief guests to light the lamp as a
symbol of illumination. Mr. Anand then,
welcomed the chief guests by offering them a
memento, Shawl and bouquet.
Speeches by the Chief guests
Speech by Ms. Savitri Singh
Ms. Savitri Singh opened her speech with the words “Jai Sahkar”. She said that we have a
big base of cooperatives and if we are able to sensitize all the members of our cooperatives
about HIV/ AIDS then we can easily create awareness on larger level. She also said that we
will provide list of cooperatives to the State AIDS Control Societies so that they can contact
and coordinate with them for trainings down the line in cooperatives. International
Cooperative Alliance was formed in 1895 at Geneva with the aim of encouraging the
cooperatives, she said. There are more than 80 crore members of cooperatives in 110
countries and 58 Cooperative organisations in 25 countries. Out of which 8 member
organizations are in India like, MCUI, IFCO, RIDCO, MCBC, etc.
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Ms. Savitri Singh said that HIV has serious implications on development of the country and
it is now time to react by all. The Cooperatives are the business-based organizations so they
can contribute in preventing HIV by different ways like by doing IEC activities etc.
Cooperatives can also help in the social marketing of condoms by open condom outlets and
by installing condom vending machines on places under their supervision. She emphasized
on the gravity of the epidemic by quoting example of Africa. She said that in 2002, due to
the rise in HIV positive cases the cooperative credit moment was very strong. Members
were taking loan for medicines, treatment and funeral. Due to deaths because of HIV/AIDS
the number of cooperative members were declining. So they contacted the chiefs of
Cooperatives. In 2004 first conference was launched at India.
Speech by Dr. J.C. Gupta
Dr. J.C. Gupta said that RSACS is doing different interventions for the prevention and
control of HIV in the state. He said that to check HIV is our joint responsibility and with
this view our State Mainstreaming Unit is trying to Mainstream the HIV issue with different
stakeholders.
Speech by Shri. C.M. Meena,
Mr. C.M. Meena, IAS, Pricipal Chief Secretary, Cooperatives, Government of Rajasthan,
said that visualizing the role and importance of cooperatives in spreading the awareness on
HIV, it is an important workshop. In Rajasthan there are about 25000 cooperative societies,
which shows that we have a large structure of organizations to work at ground level. He
said that after so much of awareness work, the HIV is spreading because people don’t have
complete information. He expressed hope that the workshop will help to enhance this
knowledge of the participants gathered here. And through these participants this
information will reach many others. He also said that it is important that our leaders get
sensitized on HIV issues because people follow their leaders. If the cooperative leaders
themselves come forward, then we will surely able to increase our reach to every nook of
the society. Shri Meena expressed his happiness over the good gathering of participants in
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the workshop and also on the presence of female members. He said that the active
participation of women is important for the significant role of cooperatives in campaign
against AIDS. There should be a federation of women at village level because government
also wants to strengthen the Self Help Groups, he said.
Speech by Mrs. Firoza Bano
Mrs. Firoza Bano welcomed all the participants. She said that in India the role of woman is
very great because she is the career of culture and traditions from one generation to another.
But in recent years her role is changed a lot because our culture and traditions are also
undergoing changes, which can be one of the reasons for the spread of HIV. Women are
more affected by HIV. She said that it is really encouraging to see number of women
participants in this workshop. She hoped that all the participants would take a lead in
initiating Mainstreaming of HIV with Cooperatives.
Technical sessions:
Session one: Basic of HIV/AIDS & National and State scenario and ongoing
programmes and cure of disease
The first technical session was delivered by Mr. Nahid Mohd. The objectives of the session
were as under:
To enhance the Knowledge level of the participants on HIV/AIDS.
•
To discuss the prevention modes
•
To clarify attitudes towards HIV
•
To clarify myths and Misconceptions
•
Mr. Nahid explained participants about the basics of HIV and AIDS. He told the
participants about the difference between HIV & AIDS and causes of HIV transmission.
The information to participants was also given about different fluids through which the
virus can be transmitted. He also told the participants about the different high-risk groups
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and how the virus is entering from high-risk groups to general population. Mr. Nahid told
the participants about different safety measures one should take to avoid HIV infection. He
emphasized over the correct knowledge of HIV and tries to eliminate different myths and
misconceptions. He said that it is very important to have correct knowledge of HIV because
different myths about HIV leads to stigma and discrimination against the HIV infected and
affected persons, reduced care and support of PLHIV and also discourage testing and
counseling of HIV.
He told the participants about the National AIDS Control Programme and about various
services being provided to HIV positives at the state level. Information about different HIV
tests and antiretroviral therapy was also given to the participants in a simple manner. He
said that HIV is not curable but manageable, if one takes antiretroviral therapy regularly.
Session two: HIV risk behavior and assessment it’s impact on the society
Stigma impact on women & children, House hold, Workplace, National
economy
Mr. Akshay, Sector Coordinator, SMU- RSACS, in his session told the participants about
the different types of high-risk groups and the behavior associated with high-risk activities
in context of HIV/ AIDS and its impact over the individual, family, society, work place and
the development process of the country. He explained the participants that why it is
important to be aware with the personal health, habits and sexual behaviour to avoid any
type of risk.
Then after he explained the associated stigma and discrimination with HIV and its adverse
impact over the individual, family and the society. Mr. Akshay mentioned different types of
stigma and discrimination with PLHIV and also discussed such cases if, ever known or seen
by the participants in their surrounding. He said that due to high stigma and discrimination
the PLHIV fear to share their status in society. He told the participants about different types
of reasons due to which PLHIV have to face discrimination by their family members,
friends, community and work place. He said that it is very important to have the correct
knowledge of HIV/ AIDS to eliminate stigma and discrimination in the society because it
Support to national Efforts for Mainstreaming of HIV 1

will help to increase counseling, testing and providing care and support to PLHIV. He
explained the participants that how reduction in stigma and discrimination against PLHIV
will help in increasing counseling and testing of HIV.
In the last he suggested some ways to the participants to contribute in Mainstreaming of
HIV. He said that the members of cooperatives could disseminate correct information about
HIV, protect the human rights of
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This session was taken by Mr.
Ashok Raisinghani, Project
Officer, SMU, to develop a conceptual understanding of participants about Mainstreaming
of HIV. He said that the HIV is not confined to urban areas only rather making much larger
presence in the rural India because more than 50 per cent HIV infections are from rural
areas. He told the participants about different vulnerable factors in Rajasthan, which
support the increase of HIV. He said that number of HIV positives as per NACO estimates
are around 2.5 millions but if we do not realize this problem, the number can be increased
more, which will ultimately harm the development of the country. He put the example of
South Africa, where the HIV prevalence has increased from 0.2 per cent to 20 per cent in
last just 20 years. He warned the participants that if still we do not become vigilant, then
after some years we would have the situation like South Africa.
Mr Ashok said that if only government work against HIV then it will take a long time to
control the epidemic but if all the departments start working then we are able to achieve our
goal quickly and this is the real Mainstreaming of HIV. With the intention to
Mainstreaming HIV with different stakeholders this workshop is organized, he further
added.
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To further clarify the concept of Mainstreaming he showed the pictures of four different
commercial Hindi movies namely, Tare
Zameen Per, Lage Raho Munna Bhai, Some Examples of mainstreaming:
Chak de India and Phir Milenge. He
said that all these four movies had big
stars of Bollywood but neither Sharukh
Khan was any authority of Indian
Hockey Federation, nor Sanjay Dutt
was doing any social work, nor Amir
Khan was doing any advocacy. They all
are professionals and had made hit
commercial movies but have also conveyed messages of social cause on different issues. So
they have performed social responsibility along with making profits. This is how we can
also bring the issue of HIV/ AIDS in to mainstream.
He said that if a NGO working on education start talking about HIV in his program then it
will not increase the cost of the project but it will help in sending the messages of HIV
prevention and control to a large audience. If a cement factory doing his advertisement and
it add a line about HIV then it will not increase the cost of advertisement. This is called
Mainstreaming.
Mr. Ashok said that till today it was assumed that HIV prevention and control is the
responsibility of Health department, but now it is important for all of us to own the
responsibility. He also said that Mainstreaming of HIV is a cost effective approach.
Cooperatives has a very large base of workers, which can be easily mobilize to create more
awareness among people living in rural areas, where the reach of health services and
information is still a problem. Mr. Ashok told the cooperatives members present in the
workshop to integrate HIV in their programmes and policies like-by identifying the
programmes which have largest reach to the population, by adding orientation sessions on
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HIV in all training programmes and by installing condom vending machines at suitable
locations.
Session Three: Strategy for HIV/AIDS prevention and control
The session was taken by Mr. Krishna Gautam, Programme Manager, Mainstreaming
Resource Unit. He told the participants about their roles and responsibilities toward a
PLHIV. He said that as a common man we can advise them to have good nutrition,
immediate medical advice and follow safe sex behaviour. We can help in checking further
spread of HIV if we have correct knowledge about HIV because then we will not practice
stigma and discrimination against PLHIV. We can guide people about the correct sources of
information and services regarding HIV/ AIDS. We can also follow certain precautions to
protect ourselves from getting infected. We can ascertain that various needs of PLHIV like
medical, social, psychological and nutritional are being fulfilled. We can also help them in
getting registered at ART centre so that they can be avail of Antri retroviral therapy. He
told the participants that we can support PLHIV by addressing their economic rehabilitation
and by taking care of education of their
children.
Mr. K. Gautam told the participants about
HIV management to minimize the
psychological and physiological impact
of HIV on PLHIV. He said that like
diabetes and blood pressure, HIV could
also be managed if not fully treated.
Lastly, the various services available for PLHIV were described to the participants in detail.
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Session Four: Group exercise
This was the last session of the training programme. The session was lead by Ms. Madhu
Sharma, Sector Coordinator, SMU, RSACS. She divided all the participants in five groups
and each group was asked to write
suggestions for Mainstreaming of HIV on
flip charts. All the five groups came out
with some good suggestions regarding
Mainstreaming of HIV.
Some of the suggestions are summarized as
under:
To display messages on HIV in processions like Prabhat Pheri, pad yatra
•
(processions), etc.
To display messages on HIV in offices.
•
To add lesson on HIV/ AIDS in school curriculum.
•
To create more awareness on HIV through trainings and discussion in office.
•
To print messages on HIV in reports, register etc. used in office.
•
To distribute IEC material in local fairs, exhibitions etc.
•
To take session of school children on HIV.
•
Vote of Thanks
Mr. R.K. Anand, Principal, Institute of Cooperative Management gave vote of thanks.
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