new delhi, JANUARY 17: Some women's organisations have expressed differences with the Joint Action Front over its demand for review of the second phase of the AIDS control programme.The groups said that they disagreed with the Front whose main objection to the AIDS programme was over targeted intervention in special groups like sex workers. The Front had felt that this would mean an indirect recognition of prostitution.The Joint Women's Programme, which is not a signatory to the memorandum given to the Prime Minister but whose name is on the list of support groups, has shot off a letter to the Joint Action Front, saying that it did not wish to be associated with the whole affair. Another group, the National Federation of Indian Women, has said that they are also not part of the Front and they would be separately seeking a review of the AIDS programme but for different reasons.``We have been working with prostitutes since 1981. How can we suddenly take a stand against it?'' asked Jyotsna Chatterjee,chairman of the Joint Women's Programme.However, National Federation of Indian Women general secretary Amarjeet Kaur said that her group was also against the second phase programme. ``We have not been told of the fallout of the first phase and we also want a review of the first phase. We do not agree with the Front because they want the programme to be concerned with rehabilitating sex workers which we feel would be a diversion of attention and emphasis,'' Kaur said.``We feel that the whole project is lopsided and is meant to serve the interests of some funding agencies,'' Kaur said, adding that her group along with five other groups are to demand a total review of the second phase. She said that that there was a hidden agenda of funders behind the programme. ``Funds are being diverted to AIDS to the exclusion of all other health problems of the country. The Government has to explain this,'' she said.Remi Chabra of the Joint Action Front said that whatever be the differences among groups, the Frontstood by its protest against any targeted interventions to control AIDS. ``The programme is talking about behavioural change in high-risk groups like sex workers and drug addicts. And for the Government, this change is at present limited to making condoms available to society and is not concerned about ending prostitution or drug abuse,'' she said.
