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S. Gopikrishna Warrier

CHENNAI, Oct.13

CORPORATES in and around Chennai are becoming proactive with AIDS awareness and are asking Y.R. Gaitonde Centre for AIDS Research and Education (YRG-CARE) to provide education and training to their staff.

According to Mr Sanjay Sathyapalan, Community Liaison Officer with YRG-CARE, there has been an increased interest among corporates to make their staff aware of the epidemic, and also the methods of transmission.

Partially this has been because of the major campaigns launched by the Central and State Governments in the recent years.

This has awakened the people to the reality that the spread of the disease could be a serious problem that can have an adverse impact on the industrial workforce.

He added that among corporates some of the initial initiatives came from multinational corporations, which had operations in countries where the impact of the pandemic hit earlier. For instance, Ford India Ltd, understood the seriousness of the impact AIDS could have from the experience of the car corporation's South African facility a few years ago.

According to Mr Vinay Piparsania, Vice-President — External Affairs at Ford India Ltd, said that company had started off AIDS awareness programme for its 900-strong workforce since 2000. The initiative had come right from the top management due to the damage the disease had done to the workforce in South Africa. He said that the Ford Motor Company of South Africa had developed the awareness programme under the leadership of Mr Lewis Booth, President of the multinational's Asia-Pacific and Africa operations, who had earlier headed the South African operations. The company was honoured for its initiative by the US Department of State in 2001.

In India Ford started working with YRG-CARE for its Maramalai Nagar plant since the group could provide user-friendly and consistent information to the staff.

According to Mr Sathyapalan, the financial contribution for YRG-CARE from the corporates is not in the form of donations but in the form of a small participation fee per employee. "More than donations what we request is for the time and commitment."

However, some funding for the hospital also comes from service organisations like Madras Heritage Round Table No. 124, which draws its membership from young industrialists.

According to Mr Sunil Ralan of MHRT, the choice on YRG-CARE was made since it was the only organisation working on testing, counselling, treatment and care.

For the managers of Audco India Ltd, the awareness programmes on AIDS carried out by YRG-CARE personnel helps make their staff more responsible citizens. "Our responsibility does not end with giving technical training to our staff, but also making them more responsible citizens," said Mr S. Kumaralingam, Senior Personnel Manager.

The training, according to him, is also provided to the apprentices and contract labour. The two-hour programmes started in April 2001 for this company. Roughly around 300 people have attended these programmes.

Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd, undertook to carry out awareness programmes in its facility, since it did not want its staff to be unaware of AIDS, said Dr O.J. Stanley, Manager Training. The participation was kept open for all levels of staff.

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