Asansol, Jan. 4  :    Asansol, Jan. 4 :  The lone non-government organisation fighting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and AIDS in the industrial belt around Asansol and Durgapur faces the threat of closure even before its second foundation day. The Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (Care) had set up its branch, Shram Shakti Project, at Asansol in April 1999. But a dearth of funds has set alarm bells ringing. Funded by the British government's department for international development (DFID), the project was to combat the menace among 'high risk groups' in the industrial belt, covering nearly 1.5 lakh people for five years. Ashok Kumar Agarwal, the project manager, said funds started dwindling from the beginning of the current financial year. If this trend continued, the project would have to be wound up. In the first year, the project covered the Satgram area of Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL), Burn Standard Company Limited and the red light areas of Asansol. The target groups included sex workers, industrial workers and their wives. The organisation worked with over 1,000 sex workers in the red light areas of Lachhipur and Sitarampur in Asansol sub-division. This year, it has reached out to IISCO, said Seema Chakraborty, a project official. The project plans to cover other parts of ECL, Chittaranjan Locomotive Works, Dishergarh Power Supply, Durgapur and other industrial areas like Titagarh in the next five years, she added. 'But if the flow of funds continues to be slashed, I don't know how long we will be able to carry on this job,' said Agarwal. He would not spell out the amount received in grants so far. Apart from the funds crunch, rigid rules are also a problem. Funds have to be routed through the state AIDS society, which follows the guidelines of the National AIDS Control Organisation (Naco). Naco does not recognise industrial workers and their wives as target groups for HIV/STD intervention, explained Anita Pal Chowdhury, another project official. The project authorities have approached the DFID headquarters in New Delhi and Naco to find a solution. Sanjeeb Saha, a project official, quoted a report of the Needs Assessment and Baseline Survey that had found 'high prevalence of STDs among industrial workers in the area'. According to the survey, eight per cent of the industrial workers, 52 per cent of their wives and 42 per cent of the sex workers clinically examined showed symptoms of STDs. Alarmingly, almost 30 per cent industrial workers did not seek treatment from doctors. Giving an idea of the project's contribution, field officer Sonali Mukherjee said Shram Shakti has reached out to 1,36,438 people, treated 1,200 STD cases and distributed 2,84,274 condoms till November. The stigma attached to a patient suffering from sexual disease is on the wane due to its sustained campaign, Sonali claimed. Two HIV-positive cases were detected in a factory in Asansol recently, but neither the company nor the workers had ostracised them, she said. Among the target groups, the percentage of people aware of STD and HIV/AIDS has risen from 24 per cent to 43 per cent. The rate of condom use among sex workers in the belt has gone up to 38.9 per cent from 7 per cent last year.