CHENNAI: The HIV virus can severely affect the industrial and corporate sectors, affecting manpower as a resource and productivity, said leaders of Government AIDS Control Societies from South India.Speaking at a national conference on HIV - Partnership, Prevention and Treatment hosted by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), here on Tuesday, C Partha Sarathi, project director - AP AIDS Control Society, said, “There is a marked lack of entertainment for the people in these sectors. Hence sex becomes a form of recreation for them.” He also pointed out that it not only affected the morale of the workers adversely, but also reduced their efficiency, “Work becomes risky because they may have lapses of concentration leading to accidents or errors.” While this can be particularly risky amongst lower industrial workers, the cases in the corporate sector can also have an increased risk of contracting HIV because of the large number of migrants.Moving from a scenario where lorry drivers and migrant industrial workers were the majority carriers of the virus, the disease can be a threat to “all sections of society.” This view was enforced by V Palanikumar, project director - TANSACS, who said, “AIDS is a very real threat to the industrial sector today, especially considering the massive growth we are witnessing.” He went to elaborate that 90 per cent of the HIV affected people were in the age group of 15-49 years, “the working population”, of which 93 per cent were part of the unorganised sector. He urged captains of industry and Confederation of Indian Industry to play a leading role in increasing AIDS awareness which can be extended in a big way.
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