AIDS will create a generation of orphans: UN report

NEW DELHI, May 28: Every minute, six people were infected with HIV in 1996 worldwide. New HIV infections now run at 8,500 each day and abou...

NEW DELHI, May 28: Every minute, six people were infected with HIV in 1996 worldwide. New HIV infections now run at 8,500 each day and about 30 million people are estimated to have been infected. The largest number of new cases are from South Asia, especially India.

The United Nations Fund for Population Activities (UNFPA) State of World Population Report 1997, warns that the AIDS pandemic threatens to create a generation of orphans. It is already having a serious demographic effect in some African countries where it is estimated that death rates would be 25 per cent lower without AIDS.

Releasing the report here today, UNFPA’s India Representative Dr Wasim Zaman said that a lot more needed to be done in the area of population control and reproductive health.

The report, titled “The Right to Choose: Reproductive Rights and Reproductive Health”, highlights the fact that the rights of women and the reproductive rights of men and women are not being adequately protected. Some global statistics :

* 585,000 women die each year from pregnancy related causes (100,000 in India alone, 20 per cent due to anaemia), nearly all in developing countries

* At least 75 million pregnancies (43 per cent of the total) each year are unwanted, they lead to 45 million abortions and over 30 million live births.

* 70,000 women die every year as a result of unsafe abortion (17 per cent of them – 12,000 – in India).

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* 3.1 million people were infected by HIV last year – six every minute; 1.5 million died from HIV/AIDS related causes in 1996; 22.6 million are living with HIV/AIDS all over the world.

* 1 million people die each year from reproductive tract infections, including sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) other than HIV/AIDS. More than 333 million new cases of STDs each year are among teenagers.

* 2 million girls between the ages of 5 and 15 are introduced into the commercial sex market each year.

* At least 60 million girls are “missing” from various populations as a result of sex selective abortions or neglect.

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Responding to questions, Zaman said that the government’s target-free approach to population control has led to uncertainty and confusion in the field. He added that India’s shift in (1994) from a target-specific approach to a choice-oriented one was a difficult one and that a gestation period of two to three years was natural. He said, “Two years may have been lost – but not totally. What is needed is clear directions on what to do now.”