Imphal, June 6: With more than 15,000 people testing positive for HIV in Manipur so far, an alarmed government has decided to install condom vending machines in three districts. Manipur will be the first state in the Northeast to have such a facility.
State family welfare minister Bijoy Koijam said such a step would promote safer sexual practices and as well as family planning. The condoms will be available free of cost, he said.
The Manipur family welfare department has struck a deal for supply of 12 such machines from the Mumbai-based Hindustan Latex Company.
To be installed at strategic points in Imphal West, Imphal East, Churachandpur and Senapati districts, the condom vending machines would be acquired at a cost of Rs 65 lakh, and funded by the Union family welfare ministry.
The department is also planning to install one in the border township of Moreh. Thriving brothels on either side of the international border have been a source of major concern. Clients regularly visit sex workers at Tamu in adjoining Myanmar through Moreh, sources said.
“The machines are being supplied by Hindustan Latex Company, a government of India undertaking. The machines are being installed by next month,” Koijam said.
According to the Manipur AIDS Control Society, AIDS has claimed 190 lives and 15,043 people have tested positive for the deadly virus in Manipur. Sources said the number of sex workers is also on the rise.
An Imphal-based NGO, which is working on counselling and rehabilitation of commercial sex workers, said there were more than 100 commercial sex workers operating in the state capital alone.
Many sex workers come to the NGO’s clinic for treatment of various diseases, including sexually-transmitted ones and AIDS. Koijam said his department would rope in the services of NGOs for manning the condom vending machines.
Such machines had been installed at Delhi Haat and near the Safdarjung Hospital in the national capital. The minister said the government was considering limiting the number of children of state employees. He said maternity leave would not be granted to employees who already have two children.