Ironically Maharashtra State Aids Control Society (MSACS) has placed restrictions on all associated NGO’s to stop all HIV prevention activities in the state. Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society (MSACS) has suspended it core health interventions drastically from July, 2015 due to lack of funds. This current stand of MSACS would be affecting directly about 3 lakh highly risk population who used to get benefitted through its services. About 182 projects of MSACS which have been catering free distribution of condoms and syringes to the availability of medicines and testing kits to nearly three lakh high-risk population in the state will be mass section suffering with this decision.

MSACS Sacks it Services Leaving 3 Lakh Population at High Risk

On June 11, 2015 MSACS has issued notices all the associated NGOs and community-based organizations (CBOs) to cut short the strength and services of social workers and instructors working on creating awareness on HIV and AID by 25%. NGOs and CBOs which have been working on creating awareness on HIV/AIDS claim that they have failed to get any pecuniary resources from MSACS since January this year which has led some of them rassling for lucre. Canning the pedagogy educating the high risk population in the state shall be a encroachment in the supply of condoms, lubricants and syringes in the Maharashtra state’s most vulnerable regions.

People of the vulnerable pockets of Maharashtra have been found motivated most of the times to get tested and to use contraceptive devices such as condoms for safe intercourse in regulating the sexually transmitting diseases by the peer educators or leaders who belong to the high-risk community who are usually female sex workers, transgenders and men having sex with men. National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) was blamed by the Maharashtra State Aids Control Society (MSACS) for granting funds in retarding way on being asked about discharging 182 projects and services of it.

Official sources of MACS claim that perhaps they would be granted with pecuniary resources during October this year by the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) and this kind of delayed funding pattern has left the MSACS and other state organisations to call of their services to the vulnerable population of the state and nation as per the state regularly bodies. Although the official reports make it clear that a sum of Rs 8 crore has been released by the NACO to the state authority MSACS as a possible result to meet the emergency needs in Maharashtra.

As of now MSACS has been granted with the three-fourths of the assured funds of an annual budget of Rs 130.12 crore. Although MSACS has urged NACO to increase the funds to Rs 200 crore currently as annual plan to meet the growing demands while serving vulnerable and affected people in the state while it is under consideration. Recalling the insights of the NACO reports with a prevalence rate of 0.40% in the country Maharashtra has ranked as the six high-risk states along with Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. During the year 2013-2014 out of the 20 lakh people 40,000 people had tested positive leaving clear indications that HIV scare is still very pertinent in Maharashtra state.

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There are serious shortages of drugs and testing kits since early last year and with the latest notification of MSACS to suspend some of the activities from July to next March. Some of the activities which are believed to be cut short are advocacy activities, crisis response, health camps, insurance of staff, documentation costs and demand generation activities. A senior official of health ministry under anonymity conditions said “We can keep releasing money from the centre but if state government treasuries do not pass the money on, there is nothing we can do sitting in Delhi. All state governments have different priorities and cash flow issues- the money does not get to state AIDS societies for months. Additionally, the money is never released in one go. They get bits of it every few months- this can kill any programme.”

Anyways we would like to urge the concerned authorities through this medium to carry on the operations of MSACS and NACO releasing the funds. Stay tuned with us for more info and updated news happening across the globe by bookmarking us pressing Ctrl+D in your web browser.