Forty percent of Indian women don’t know about AIDS

STR/AFP/Getty Images A government survey has found that over 40 percent of women in India have never heard of AIDS. In a country where 5.7 million people live with HIV/AIDS, according to the United Nations, that’s bad news. Activists blame poor awareness for the spread of the disease, particularly among women. Perhaps there is some good news about ...

STR/AFP/Getty Images

STR/AFP/Getty Images

A government survey has found that over 40 percent of women in India have never heard of AIDS. In a country where 5.7 million people live with HIV/AIDS, according to the United Nations, that’s bad news. Activists blame poor awareness for the spread of the disease, particularly among women.

Perhaps there is some good news about AIDS in India, though. A recent study in the Guntar district of Andhra Pradesh, the state with the highest HIV rate in India, found that the government’s estimation of the number of HIV-infected people was highly inflated. The researchers found that the real figure was less than half of what the government believed. However, the U.N. has warned against drawing “hasty conclusions” and generalizing the findings to the entire country. Either way, it doesn’t help women to be in the dark about HIV/AIDS, especially with the growing “feminization” of the disease in India. Women now account for almost 40 percent of those infected with the disease in India. Sadly, this new survey on women’s awareness of AIDS also highlights that not only is wealth in the country failing to trickle down, so is information that can save lives.

Prerna Mankad is a researcher at Foreign Policy.

More from Foreign Policy

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping give a toast during a reception following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 21.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping give a toast during a reception following their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 21.

Can Russia Get Used to Being China’s Little Brother?

The power dynamic between Beijing and Moscow has switched dramatically.

Xi and Putin shake hands while carrying red folders.
Xi and Putin shake hands while carrying red folders.

Xi and Putin Have the Most Consequential Undeclared Alliance in the World

It’s become more important than Washington’s official alliances today.

Russian President Vladimir Putin greets Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
Russian President Vladimir Putin greets Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.

It’s a New Great Game. Again.

Across Central Asia, Russia’s brand is tainted by Ukraine, China’s got challenges, and Washington senses another opening.

Kurdish military officers take part in a graduation ceremony in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, on Jan. 15.
Kurdish military officers take part in a graduation ceremony in Erbil, the capital of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, on Jan. 15.

Iraqi Kurdistan’s House of Cards Is Collapsing

The region once seemed a bright spot in the disorder unleashed by U.S. regime change. Today, things look bleak.