70% rural women in Bihar not aware of HIV/AIDS: survey
Patna Feb 13, 2007
Ashok Mishra- Hindustan Times

The word HIV/AIDS may be dreaded the world over, but in Bihar’s rural hinterland nearly 35 per cent married men and 70 per cent women have no idea about it. In urban areas, there are nine per cent men, who have never heard of it.

These are the findings of the latest National Family Health Survey (NHFS), which shows with devastating clarity the extent to which Bihar has failed to create a properly functional public health system. The fieldwork for the survey of 2005-2006 was conducted between April and July 2006.

The NHFS is a massive all-India survey which gives key indicators on vaccination rates, HIV/AIDS rates, child nutrition, infant mortality etc. The last one was conducted in 1999.

In the last six years, the number of children, who are wasted (too thin for height) in Bihar, has gone up to 28 per cent in 2005-06 from 20 per cent recorded in 1999 while the number of underweight children (too thin for age) has reached 58 per cent from 54 per cent in 1999.

Though the trends in infant mortality in rural areas is encouraging as the rate has gone down from 68 per cent to 63 per cent, it has surprisingly risen to 54 per cent from 53 per cent in urban areas during the last survey.

The total fertility rate is 4 children per woman, mocking at the much-publicized two-child norm. Nearly 60.3 per cent of the surveyed women were married at 18 and 25 per cent women in the age group of 15-19 had become mothers, or were pregnant. Craving for sons refuses to die down as 77.4 per cent married women with two living children wanted sons.

Only 34.1 per cent women aged between 15 and 49 years use family planning. Just 28.8 per cent of these women used modern methods, compared to male counterparts, of whom just 23.8 percent have tried it.

Overall 82.4 per cent children aged 12 to 23 months were immunised while only 22.2 per cent children with diarrhoea were given ORS. Just 48.7 per cent of the children were taken to a health facility while just 54.6 per cent of kids with complaints of acute respiratory infections had access to any health facility.

Despite spread of awareness at every level only 4 per cent received breast-feeding within an hour of birth. No wonder 58.4 per cent of children below three years were found underweight; 42.3 per cent of them are stunted and 27.7 percent are wasted, according to the survey.

The survey found that 43 per cent of women had less than normal body mass index. The percentage for men being significantly lower at 28.7. The percentage of anaemic children between 6 and 35 months is 87.6, while 68.3 per cent married women were anaemic, the report added.

As much as 46.3 per cent newly married women participate in household decisions, while 59 per cent ever-married women experienced spouse violence, the survey said.

Nearly half of Indian women have not heard of AIDS
Fri Feb 23, 2007 6:17 AM ET
By Kamil Zaheer
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - More than 40 percent of women in India have not heard of AIDS, according to a government survey that has alarmed activists.
India has 5.7 million people living with HIV/AIDS, according to the United Nations, which is the world's highest caseload. But the prevalence rate, in the country of 1.1 billion people, is much lower than in most of Africa.
The National Family Health Survey (NFHS), the most extensive study on health and nutrition in India, said in its latest report only 57 percent of women have heard of AIDS.
In rural areas, where most Indians live, less than half the women -- 46 percent -- were aware of the disease.
Activists said on Friday that poor awareness among women was fuelling the epidemic.
"This shows women don't have access to information, translating into more women getting infected," said Anjali Gopalan, head of Naz Foundation India, a leading anti-AIDS group.
In the past few years, there has been a growing "feminisation" of the epidemic in India with nearly 40 percent of all those infected now being women, including housewives.
"Biologically, women are more susceptible to HIV," said Christy Abraham of ActionAid-India. "The lack of awareness adds to the HIV threat they face."
One reason for low awareness is that the government has focused prevention efforts on high-risk groups like prostitutes and intravenous drug users, rather than on the general population.
"But we are expanding prevention efforts among the general population in rural areas, especially women, over the next five years," a government official said on condition of anonymity.
Many rural women have been infected by their husbands who work in the cities and visit prostitutes. Stigma stops infected husbands from telling their wives they are HIV-positive.
The NFHS survey, supported by UNICEF as well as the British and U.S. governments, shows a gulf in awareness between men and women, with 80 percent of men having heard of the disease.
Only 54 percent of Indian women are literate compared with 76 percent for men.
Many women in villages do not have television in their homes and miss out on anti-AIDS advertisements, say activists, calling for a broad-based effort to educate and empower women.
"Even if they do have TVs, there is no electricity in many areas. This is one way how fighting HIV is linked to the issue of general development," Abraham said.
Activists want the government to spend more training and sending grassroot health workers to spread AIDS education among women, especially in poorer and highly populated states.
In the eastern state of Bihar -- home to 85 million people -- only 35 percent of women have heard of AIDS, with the level of awareness falling to 30 percent in villages.
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