The Prime Minister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, recently inaugurated and presided over a two day national convention on HIV and AIDS at Vigyan Bhawan in New Delhi.
The convention brought together over 800 Zila Parishad chairpersons and mayors, parliamentarians and legislators across India. The purpose of the convention was to understand the impact of the HIV epidemic on health and other key sectors, and to emphasise the role of elected representatives in the national AIDS response.
The two day convention was organised by the Forum of Parliamentarians on HIV/AIDS (FPA), in partnership with Ministries of Health and Family Welfare and NACO, Ministry of Rural Development (Panchayati Raj), Ministry Urban Development, UNAIDS and AIILSG.
The inaugural session of the convention was graced by Prime Minister of India, Chairperson UPA, Union Ministers of Health, Rural Development and Urban development, senior political leaders from different political parties and Executive Director of UNAIDS. Subsequent to the inaugural session, various Chief Ministers made statements on the status of response to HIV epidemic in their respective states. Thereafter, the convention had four technical sessions and a zonal interactive and feedback parallel session to formulate future course of action. Speakers, Ministers of the state government in charge of health, Panchayati Raj and Urban Development also had a round table during the convention. Speaker of Lok Sabha, Leader of Opposition Lok Sabha, Leader of Opposition Rajya Sabha, Deputy Chairperson Rajya Sabha, Deputy Chairperson Planning Commission were the key speakers during the convention.
The convention aimed to strengthen local response and coordination to fight against HIV and AIDS, providing a common platform to parliamentarians, state legislators, zila parishad presidents and mayors for discussions on emerging HIV prevention and policy issues in both rural and urban India. The aim was to reach out to the masses through the Panchayat institutions in order to complement the national programme on HIV and AIDS.
