World aids day: good news is hiv awareness is reaching high-risk groups; bad news is cvms may be removed from city.
For the last 15 days, ‘Dilruba’ has been spreading the message of safe sex among people.
The Mumbai District Aids Control Society (MDACS), hitting upon a novel idea, got a small advertisement — ‘Call Dilruba’ — printed in newspapers in the space where escorts usually place their ads. The caller would reach a sleazy IVR that would advise the use of condoms at the end.
The ad, which was printed for two days, got more than 2 lakh calls in the next fortnight, out of which 75% heard the entire call.
Dr SS Kudalkar, project director, MDACS, said, “Our previous drive has done well; we have brought down the HIV prevalence rate in all high-risk groups. This time, we wanted to target people who respond to call girl ads in newspapers — the untapped high-risk group.”
There is no way to contact or get information on those who speak to call girls. Hence, MDACS printed this ad to reach out to such people.
“This was a pilot project. We had selected a city newspaper that generally carries such ads. It was published for two days in the first week of November and the IVR service was kept for 15 days. We were astounded at the response,” said Kudalkar. Now, MDACS is all set to launch this service full-time.
The recording has a woman speaking in a seductive voice, saying, “Aao paas mere... mujhe chhulo… mujhe pehchano... mere badan ko haath lagao… par yeh sab karne se pehle condom use karna…”
“The number in the ad was toll-free as it was a pilot project. Looking at its success, we have decided to make the call charge Re1/min. The newspaper ad will be in such a way that the callers would not be able to discern whether it’s a usual escort service ad or an ad by MDACS. We can’t reveal the number and what the ad will contain so that it serves the purpose,” Kudalkar said.
The National Aids Control Society has appreciated this innovative approach to reach the high-risk groups, and has decided to adopt the concept for the entire nation. “We had presented the results and the IVR. NACO liked it and has decided to take it to the national level,” said Kudalkar.
MDACS is also planning to make changes in other programmes, for example renaming their Integrated Counselling and Testing Centres. “We have decided to rename them as Shakti clinics. We found that people were reluctant to ask for an ICTC for the fear of being thought of as HIV+. The name ‘Shakti’ doesn’t give away anything,” he said.
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