Himachal to sensitise students about AIDS during school prayers

SHIMLA - The Himachal Pradesh government will disseminate information about HIV/AIDS during the morning prayer session of every senior secondary school to sensitise students about the scourge, a minister said Tuesday.

“To sensitise the young minds about AIDS, the government has decided to start educating the students in the prayer session of every senior secondary school from tomorrow (Wednesday),” Health Minister Rajeev Bindal told IANS.

He said the government has published information on AIDS that has been provided to the school heads. “Of course, the schoolchildren would act as health ambassadors in our future programmes,” he added.

The hill state has 1,246 senior secondary schools with a strength of 273,488 students.

Bindal said Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal is launching a state-wide awareness campaign World AIDS Day (Dec 1) from Shimla, under which various programmes would be organised across the state for the next 25 days.

He said similar functions would be organised in all district headquarters Wednesday, where local legislators would participate.

State AIDS Control Society director Sulakshna Puri said the state has 4,829 AIDS positive cases.

“The first case in the state was reported in 1992,” she added.