Migration in India Spreading HIV Epidemic

Migration is fuelling India’s HIV epidemic. National AIDS Control Organisation’s latest figures show that besides high risk populations like sex workers, the highest burden of HIV is among migrants – 3.6%, which is 10 times the HIV prevalence among the general population.

With migration rates increasing, the prevalence will only get worse. According to the 2001 census, 30.1% of the population was considered to have migrated (314 million) – a considerable increase from 27.4% in 1991. NACO has, therefore, identified 108 railway stations – which are both source and destination of migrants travelling in search of work. These are now the focus of the country’s anti-HIV fight.

Red Ribbon Express (RRE), which chugs out of Delhi on Thursday, will stop at most of these 108 identified stations to test migrants for HIV besides carrying out counselling and spreading anti-HIV messages. During it’s year-long journey, RRE will traverse through 23 states, cover 30,000 km and stop at 162 stations.

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