Massage Parlours Duck the Message

In its latest move to check the spread of HIV, the Delhi government has decided to start an intervention programme targeted at massage parlours.

In its latest move to check the spread of HIV, the Delhi government has decided to start an intervention programme targeted at massage parlours. A survey commissioned last year by the Delhi State Aids Control Society (DSACS), which will implement this initiative, identified 1,050 massage parlours in the capital. “We have finished the mapping of the massage parlours and we’ve assessed the vulnerability to HIV in these parlours. We are not in a position to share the details,” says Nidhi Rawat, coordinator of the programme at DSACS. Massage parlours, for obvious reasons, are not gung ho about the move. “We are facing resistance from them. It is up to them whether they want to disclose their activities and share their status with us. We cannot force them to cooperate,” says Rawat. The strategy and procedure for the intervention, given such circumstances, are yet to be finalised, she says.

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Pallavi Polanki