Youth Unite for Victory on AIDS (YUVA)

Inaugurated by a high-profile government official - Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat - this social mobilisation programme nonetheless relies on youth participation. The plan is to involve India's estimated 21 million youth volunteers over a 5-year period in education and awareness for prevention; care, support and counseling for rehabilitation; and creation of an enabling environment against stigma and discrimination. For instance, more half a million volunteers from the 7 participating youth organisations were expected to travel to different corners of the country in buses as part of a "Youth Caravan" whose goal was to spread awareness to 30,000 village clusters.

Such activities rely on the full involvement of youth volunteer networks in the country, youth-led and -oriented non-governmental organisations (NGOs), youth clubs and youth development centres. These organisations will be supported and strengthened to provide youth health- and HIV-related information and services through peer education, counseling, and behaviour change communication activities by integrating HIV education programming into their regularly scheduled and special activities. All active youth volunteers will be oriented to function as peer educators through a specially developed training curriculum.

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) also figure prominently in YUVA plans. For example, a series of entertaining quiz shows on AIDS, which will be shown on television and also made available in internet and print versions, has been created. The interactive youth-oriented YUVA website enables access to this quiz series (prizes are provided); it also provides information in the form of a publication page with free downloads, as well as a FAQs page that seeks to answer questions that young people frequently ask about reproductive health, sexuality, and HIV/AIDS. E-counseling is available here as well. In addition, organisers are working to set up Youth Friendly Information Centre/Services (YFIC) in youth development centres and universities which would provide youth-oriented counseling and life skills education in a confidential, enabling environment.

Rural youth who may not have ready access to this type of media or technology will be reached through youth clubs and youth development centres, institution-based programmes, and community-based organisation (CBOs) linkages. Organisers anticipate that parents, teachers, community leaders, panchayati raj institutions, and health care providers will be involved in this effort to ensure that young people know what to do to avoid infection and protect themselves from risky sexual situations - as well as to scale up and saturate youth-friendly health care services.

HIV/AIDS, Youth.

According to the MYA&S, young people's knowledge of reproductive health, sexual hygiene and modes of HIV transmission continues to be low, particularly in rural areas. Nearly 33% of reported AIDS cases in India are in the age group of 15-29 years, with young women constituting 37% of HIV-infected adults (yet only 48% of women are aware of the HIV protective value of a condom - NACO, 2001). In this context, organisers stress that since 1991, organisations of youth volunteers at the national level "have been doing very good work on preventive education through University Talk AIDS and Village Talk AIDS programmes. Their full potential as peer leaders and educators on HIV and youth health remains under-utilized....Now the country has 21 million student and non-student youth volunteers working in different organizations....Together they have the potential to reach out and cover the entire adolescents and youth population in the country through institutional and community based activities."

As part of the first leg of the campaign, a 2-day conference was held in Delhi to foster discussion of the implementation plan and strategy of YUVA. In the second phase, beginning in August 2006, the programme was launched at the state, district and panchayat levels.