ISBT cries for attention
By Kshiti Nijhawan & Sourav Sanyal

CHANDIGARH, Sept 28 — The Inter-State Bus Terminus in Sector 17 here is in a state of neglect. Overflowing dustbins and stinking toilets are common. Cold drink cans and litter are strewn all over the place.

The local bus stand, which was inaugurated on July 23,1992, is in need of attention. None of the drinking water taps within the main complex are in working condition. A make-shift water tank, that has been installed near the entrance, leaks incessantly, creating a permanent puddle of water. Though the condition of ladies' toilet is bearable, the gents toilet needs a cleaning job.

Though people were happy with the frequency of buses, as well as the punctuality maintained by them, the general notion was that the authorities were indifferent to the run-down condition of the buses and had taken no steps for their improvement.

Mahesh Kataria, a volunteer of Chandigarh Home Guards, said buses were not parked at their allotted place, causing inconvenience to passengers. Gurmeet Singh from Patiala stood for 30 minutes at the Mani Majra bus counter, where a bus bound for Mohali had been parked.

The situation was only marginally better at the main block. Though there is adequate seating facility, the complex lacks a proper waiting room for the passengers.Yusuf, a resident of Chandigarh, pointed out a host of shortcomings." No proper measures are taken by officials to clean buses, and if a person vomits, the conductor merely covers it up with dust instead of getting it cleaned. Not only that, the condition of seats is often deplorable. He also added that CTU does not ensure proper pollution control measures for the buses."

Another problem that plagues the ISBT is the beggar menace. travellers are constantly pestered by them but no concrete steps have been taken to curb this menace. Passengers also complained about the unhygenic conditions of the drinking water enclosure which is covered with moss. Long-distance passengers added that as there are no streamlined rates of 'coolies', autos and taxis they are usually taken for a ride. Piles of garbage, which the authorities attribute to a broken dust-bin, leaking pipelines, and inoperative ceiling fans make matters worse.

Mr Balbir Singh, Inspector- in - Charge of CTU, Chandigarh, and Mr Ajaib Singh, ADM, CTU said these anomalies had not come to their notice and gave the assurance that appropriate measures would be taken to rectify the shortcomings.

Educated parent, literate children
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 28 — Education of the head of the family has a direct impact on the literacy of children, reveals a study on factors promoting retention of interest in literacy among neo-literates carried out by the Regional Resource Centre, Panjab University.

The study was carried out by Ms Anuradha Sharma in some villages of Kharar block. It focussed on retention of literary skills after six months, with test by researchers.

The report underlines the importance of environment-building activities like 'padyatras' and rendition of literacy songs and slogans. Role of panchayats and supervision also figure prominently in the list of suggestions for improvement.

Measurement of non-retention in literary skills among neo-literates in the study stood at 51.25 per cent, while those who retained literary skills stood at 48.25 per cent. The enrolment had 53 per cent of persons between 26 and 35 years of age. The lowest figure was 12 per cent in the age group of 36 to 45 years, while it was 15 per cent in the age group of 15 to 25 years.

The study departed from routine questions and focussed on the interest part of students like whether they helped members of their families in education. They were asked about their literary interests, the attitude of members of their families and whether they helped their children in their studies.

The data available on reading preferences showed that nearly 82 per cent of neo-literates were interested in stories, 75 per cent in religious books, 39 per cent in food and nutrition and only two per cent in English.

Dr Kuldeep Puri, Director of the centre, said the university was an aiding agent to various governmental and voluntary schemes on education. The key areas included training and orientation, research evaluation and academic and technical support.

Research on literary programmes and recommendations for improvement was an important area of functioning, Dr Puri said. Interaction with voluntary agencies was another important component.

Dr Puri said efforts were made to attract maximum voluntary teachers for the basic teaching course. This included part-time workers and regular teachers, who could spare time.

The centre, in another study, attempted to study the drop-out rate, its causes and the means to prevent it.

Dr Puri said the programme of voluntary organisations with state and central governments had developed certain "bureaucratic ills" over the years. Immediate redressal promised better results. He also highlighted the results of the programme in some districts, including Hoshiarpur.

HOME GARDENING TIPS

Lemon butterfly is active these days. Keep a watch.

The butterfly can be easily identified as it is quite big green with yellow spots.

It lays eggs mostly on the lower side of the leaf.

The freshly emerged larvae look like a bird drop on the leaf.

Look for the margin eaten leaves. You will find them around.

The larvae grow to green one-and-a-half-inch-long with white band over the head, around the neck and also obliquely placed at the third and fourth segment of the body.

Physically remove and crush them or else spray rogor at one ml to one litre of water. Repeat spraying after 10 days.

— Satish Narula

AIDS programme stress on education
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 28 — With the State AIDS Control Society, UT, having been allocated a sum of Rs 1.85 crore, as an ad-hoc release till March 2000, early this month, for spreading information about HIV\AIDS and checking the discrimination against those living with the HIV virus, the second phase, is already under way.

The second phase lays stress on the information, education and communication (IEC) programme, the concepts of blood safety and voluntary testing centres (VTCs) and targeted intervention for condom promotion and sexually transmitted diseases (STD) control.

In January, the society started a 24-hour hotline on AIDS counselling in collaboration with the Servants of People Society. The hotline, which is a toll free number—1097, received almost 10,000 calls last month alone. The number, which provides information in Hindi, Punjabi and English, has eight pre-recorded questions with answers, and the ninth question can be asked by the caller, the reply of which is given after 72 hours. The caller questions, according to authorities, are more on individual sexual behaviour than on simply AIDS-related problem.

The governing body of the State AIDS Control Society, UT, recently decided to start the AIDS education programme in 30 senior secondary schools of the city, during the current financial year. Also, in order to review the function and analyse the under-utilisation of the services of all STD clinics of the city, another committee has been constituted with Prof Dr Bhushan Kumar, Head of Department, Dermatology and Venereology, PGI, as its co-ordinator.

Another project already under way is on the reduction of the spread of HIV in high-risk populations like the truck and taxi operators, migrant labourers and rickshaw-pullers. This project is in collaboration with a city-based non-government organisation which is holding weekly awareness and medical camps for truckers at the Sector 26 grain market.

The intervention programme to advocate safe sex also involves promoting the use of condom, especially among the population at high-risk of getting AIDS. But the authorities do contend that even after installing about 25 condom vending machines across the city, the programme did not prove to be very successful.

Meanwhile, the authorities also state that counselling services would be provided at the yet-to-be-established voluntary testing centre at the PGI, which would be able to deal with the HIV positive patients and the AIDS victims. One of the key issues for project II also includes the need for the protection of individual human rights of people with HIV/AIDS, including anonymous HIV testing.

It is also the objective of the second phase to integrate the sexually transmitted infection (STI) Control programme into the AIDS control programme.

With the element of fear, prejudice and embarrassment still involved with the issue of AIDS, it remains to be seen how the second phase of the AIDS Control would be able to prevent and reduce the risk of HIV infection, with increase in the number of AIDS cases every year.

School students not fully aware of AIDS
By Pradeep Sharma
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Sept 28 — Despite the millions of rupees spent by the central and state governments for creating awareness about acquired immuno deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and human immuno deficiency virus (HIV), only about 1 per cent school students of Punjab are aware of the meaning of the word HIV.

This startling revelation has been made in an interim report on AIDS awareness study of senior secondary students conducted by the Regional Institute of Public Health, Chandigarh. Responses from the questionnaires of 560 students of Classes 10 and 12 in the urban and rural schools of three districts — Ropar, Gurdaspur and Patiala — were analysed and interpreted for the study.

The students were given the questionnaire containing 20 questions. Before handing over the questionnaire, the students were assured of anonymity. And to further allay their anxiety, it was made clear that this was not to test their knowledge but to evaluate what additional information, education and communication (IEC) was needed to fill the gaps in spreading information about the dreaded disease.

According to the study, only 78 of the 560 students (14 per cent) understood that AIDS stood for acquired immuno deficiency syndrome. Though 72 per cent knew that AIDS was a sexually-transmitted disease (STD), yet none of the students could name another STD.

For answer to the question "how AIDs is acquired", those who gave three routes — sexual, blood transfusion and infected needle — were clubbed in Grade "A"(26 per cent). Those who mentioned one or two routes (33 per cent) were classed as Grade "B" and those not giving any answer or wrong answers were put in the Grade "C" (41 per cent).

However, on the quiz presenting 13 statements on how AIDS could or could not be acquired, those who made 10-13 right choices were considered to be having adequate knowledge and were placed in Grade "A". Seventy six per cent students fell in this category.

The urban students did better in answering almost all the queries than the rural students. In the section of 11 multi-choice answers about "who are more likely to acquire HIV/AIDS", those who got 8-11 correct answers were graded "A" with 66 per cent getting this grade. The urban students(72 per cent) did better than their rural counterparts (56 per cent).

The students' knowledge about an open-ended question "how can AIDS be avoided", was minimal. The responses were analysed on the basis of the six expected answers: avoid unsafe sex, stick to one known partner, use condom for sex with many or unknown persons, use only tested blood for transfusion, avoid group drug abuse with needles and use sterilised or disposable needles or injections when advised by doctor. Only 4 per cent answering 4-6 correct answers were graded "A" and the majority of them were urban Class 12 girls. While 48 per cent could manage to answer 1-3 questions correctly, the same percentage could not answer even one of the questions.

About 90 per cent students knew that AIDS was a fatal disease. However, half of the students believed that it was a curable disease. While 65 per cent answered correctly that there no effective vaccine against AIDS, boys accounted for 74 per cent in this category with 56 per cent girls answering it correct.

On "can daily exercise prevent HIV/AIDS", 60 per cent answering correctly with boys(75 per cent) faring better than the girls (56 per cent). Similarly, on the question "can condom prevent HIV/AIDS and other STDs", about 75 per cent said yes and there was no gender or location differential in the responses. The Class 12 students (84 per cent) answered better than the Class 10 students (67 per cent).

On the issues of testing of the knowledge of the students on long incubation period, rational behaviour with known HIV person, risk behaviour for acquiring the infection and if it was an important health problem in Punjab, seven statements were listed to be marked right or wrong. The urban schools fared far better (71 per cent) than the rural schools which could manage only 47 per cent. The correct answers were provided by 61 per cent with Class 12 students getting 71 per cent correct as against 53 per cent by the Class 10 students.

About getting blood from commercial blood donors, 78 per cent answered in the negative. Over 81 per cent urban students said they knew that there was a laboratory test for diagnosing HIV/AIDS and only 58 per cent rural students had this information. Overall 72 per cent pupils had this information.

Television topped the list of the sources of information about the disease followed by radio, newspapers, health workers, magazines, advertisements and booklets, poster, peers and community leaders. The students felt that teachers and visiting health workers to the schools played only a marginal role. However, an overwhelming 92 per cent wanted that the schools should be providing the needed IEC.

Meanwhile, during the course of the study the teachers were also met in small groups, often male and female teachers separately, and through unstructured questioning information was gathered by the investigators on the introduction of adult education in the the schools. Almost all the teachers favoured the starting of the appropriate adult education in the schools by stages beginning from Class VI.