India
In India, where young people represent a large proportion of the country’s population, an estimated 2.4 million people are infected with HIV. In phase II of the country's National AIDS Control Programme, the Adolescent Education Programme (AEP) was launched. The programme aimed to train teachers and peer educators to educate the student community both in and out of school about life skills, HIV prevention and HIV related stigma and discrimination. Under the initiative 112,000 schools were covered and 288,000 teachers were trained.
However, there is a discrepancy between the large amount of effort invested in HIV/AIDS curricula and training packages on a national level, and the lack of actual education being carried out in many schools. In the states of the country where there is a relatively low HIV prevalence, officials have been reluctant to encourage AIDS education, claiming that the problem is not significant enough in these areas to warrant a widespread educational response. In reality, it is crucial that young people learn about AIDS in areas with a low prevalence so that the prevalence stays low.
In 2007 it was reported that a number of states had decided not to implement the Adolescence Education Programme in its present form, rejecting the material that had been supplied. Many young people across India are still not receiving information about HIV/AIDS.
“We had a session on AIDS in school once, but it was sketchy. I still do not know the difference between HIV and AIDS. We could not ask any questions, because the boys in our class would tease us later... At home, my mother knows even less, and my father would not allow such a conversation”.
Chaudhury, an arts undergraduate in Alwar, India
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