Names flipped to fight AIDS bias

Governments have struggled against the bias, but Andhra Pradesh has found a way to end the discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients by just flipping names.

Defunct leprosy wards will be renamed AIDS wards and their beds, which rarely have takers now, will be given to those who are being treated for the deadly virus.

“Leprosy wards in district hospitals have been converted into HIV care and support wards,” said state AIDS Control Society director K. Ashok Kumar, adding that the move was a way to put the idle facilities to good use.

The 20-bed wards dedicated to treating leprosy patients will soon turn into anti-retroviral therapy centres for those suffering from HIV/AIDS, said Kumar.

Andhra, home to the largest number of patients living with the virus in India, has already redesignated its leprosy officers as AIDS monitoring officials. According to some reports, 1.5 to 2 per cent of the state’s population could be afflicted. The problem is much bigger in areas like Mahbubnagar, Karimnagar and East Godavari, where about 3 per cent of the people could be hit.

Ear to the ground

A motley band of magicians, tattoo-artists, caricaturists and snack vendors entertained differently abled children at a carnival in the capital recently.

Children from the Multipurpose Training Institute for the Deaf were kept engrossed in a variety of games — Pin the Donkey, Hit the Bull’s Eye, Blow the Balloon — and a tug-of-war and painting contests at the carnival organised by a cellphone firm.

The company organises such activities as part of its philosophy to go beyond business and touch society. Last year, a similar carnival was held in a suburb of Delhi.

The training institute has been involved in providing exclusive training to physically challenged children in computer education, photography, printing and tailoring among other areas. After the games were done, it was time for snacks — candy floss, popcorn and nimbu pani.

Forum for hubbies

Harassed hubbies in the city have a fighting chance to square off with their bitter halves. All they have to do is to get in touch with the Association to Protect Men’s Rights.

The aim is to help men battling false and malicious complaints, often filed on grounds of dowry harassment or cruelty. Even henpecked husbands or those tormented by their wives can seek assistance, says G. Elangovan, a professor, who is among the founding-members.

“Some women take advantage of the laws and drag men to court for the most trivial of reasons. Our association will provide such men all legal help,” he said.

Elangovan and his colleagues at the association stress that they are not against women, they only want to ensure that no individual is punished on a false complaint.

The association’s recent launch at a city hotel was greeted by sneers from women’s groups that dismissed them as examples of male chauvinism. But the presence of some college girls at the event might have pepped up the founders.

Hoax alarm

False alarms rattled four city institutions on a single day last week, forcing sudden evacuations.

Calls were made, apparently within a few minutes of each other, to Mithibai College and Narsee Monjee College for Management in Vile Parle, Vivek College in Goregaon and St Joseph School in Malad about bombs in the premises.

Bomb-disposal squads descended in no time but, after a combing exercise, found no explosives. Bomb threats aren’t new to the city, but it is now having to live with the menace of hoax calls.

Delhi: A potpourri of Caribbean food and drinks will be livened up by Bob Marley’s classics playing in the background on Monday. Park Hotel brings a unique festival inspired by the Rastafarian movement that Marley popularised in Jamaica and the rest of the world. Time: 8.30pm.