SRINAGAR, SEPTEMBER 25: When everything fails, faith is the best recourse. Realising thegravity of the AIDS threat, the Jammu and Kashmir Government is turningto religious preachers. The government plans to request Imams to propagate AIDS awareness messages.``The experiment of involving Imams of mosques and other religious preachers had been conducted first in Ghana. The WHO found the message of awareness and preventing AIDS transmission was effectively carried through at the grassroots level,'' said Prof Muneer Masoodi of Social and Preventive Medicine at the Government Medical College, Srinagar, who is also training coordinator of the Jammu and Kashmir AIDS Control Society. ``In fact, it was a grand success. After sustained training and motivation, when Imams of the mosques launched the public awareness campaign against AIDS, giving it a religious touch, the new infection rate in Ghana dropped to a trickle.''Prof Masoodi said booklets on Ghana success model are being translated intoUrdu and Kashmiri. ``More than 80 per cent cases of HIV transmission hereoccur because of heterosexual and homosexual promiscuity and misadventures,which no religion allows or even tolerates,'' he said. ``The Imams, heads ofDarul Alooms and Madrasas, besides other religious heads, will berequested to quote references from the holy Quran and the sayings of theProphet which prohibit such sexual behaviour and practices.''He said the Society will contact Imams of mosques, Ulemas and evenDarul-Alooms and Madrasas will be involved. ``We are planning to hold evendistrict-level seminars to train and motivate them to carry out massawareness programmes for the control and prevention of the killerdisease,'' he said. The Society has also sought the help of State Academy of Art and Culture to develop posters for the awareness campaign.``The National AIDS Control Organisation puts the number of HIV positivecases at around 15,000 in Jammu and Kashmir, making AIDS a serious threatfor the State,'' he said.Ashok Parmar, Project Director, J&K State Aids Control and PreventionSociety, said the Society was to use Imams and other religious preachers aspeer educators. ``In Islam, promiscuity is prohibited and the Imams caneasily link it to the spread of AIDS virus. We hope it will be successfulbecause our State is Muslim-dominated,'' Parmar said.Parmar, however, claimed the Society had decided to go ahead on the project slowly to avoid any controversy. ``Such was the motivation in Ghana and Uganda that religious priests even promoted use of condoms to minimise the risk of AIDS,'' he said.The five-year long project, which is funded by the World Bank across thecountry, has been approved at Rs 1.49 crore. ``We are emphaising ontraining in the health department, which otherwise is a neglectedsector,'' he said.
