Mumbai Sex Workers Pay Homage to AIDS Victims

On the occasion of World AIDS Day, sex workers in Mumbai, paid tribute to people who have died of AIDS in the country. As a part of an event on AIDS awareness programme organised by a voluntary forum, sex workers along with television actor Anant Jog laid wreath on the coffin of an AIDS victim.

On the occasion, social activist, Rohit Mangeshkar voiced his concern at the discrimination faced by the HIV-AIDS infected persons from the society across the country.

"The problem that we are having now is that the HIV infected people are facing discrimination. They are ill treated and are thrown out of their houses. Some of them are even forced to beg. This stigma is forcing the HIV infected persons to commit suicide. So, we do not have any system to fight this discrimination as such we need a platform to counter this attitude in the society," said Mangeshkar.

In another major event on the World AIDS Day, school students at Rajkot, stood in the formation of the symbolic AIDS awareness ribbon on a playground.

Bharat Dave, principal of a school told that about 2000 students participated in the unique record attempt.

"This AIDS ribbon formation is about 2500 feet long and about 2000 students have participated in the event. Students got red cloth from their homes. Also, some of the parents supported us and provided us with the cloth," he said.

A person infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is considered to have developed AIDS when the immune system becomes so weak that it can no longer fight against a range of diseases with which it would normally cope.

World AIDS Day has been commemorated around the world since 1988.

According to a report of World Health Organisation (WHO), about 34 million people around the world have been affected by HIV that causes AIDS.

Source-ANI