ERODE: For perhaps the first time in the country, autorickshaws here are delivering condoms free of cost to the public.
A joint venture by V-Sukira, an Erode-based NGO, and Erode Turmeric City Lions Club, this scheme was recently introduced in the town with the help of the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society (TANSAC).
“In the first phase, the condoms will be kept in 250 autos running around the central bus stand and the railway station,” NGO president E M Ashok told Express.This year, the NGO has received 60,000 condoms free of cost from the TANSAC, of which over 30,000 were distributed to the public during the Mariamman temple festival and the trade fair at the VOC ground. They were also given to lorry drivers.
“We plan to distribute the rest of the condoms through autorickshaws. As many as 100 condoms would be packed in a carry bag and kept behind the passengers’ seat in the autos. Also, stickers will be pasted on the autos, indicating the availability of condoms,” he added.“We have selected the autos as it is a common mode of transport,” he said, adding that it would also help aravanis, commercial sex workers and homosexuals, who often feel shy to buy condoms at shops.
The regional transport officer, T Rajasekaran, had approved the scheme after getting permission from the collector, he said, and added that it could be inaugurated by the Erode GH superintendent, Dr S Sivasubramaniam.
The NGO has been involved in AIDS awareness programmes of the TANSAC for the last one decade. It also mobilised 150 transsexuals in and around Erode and ensured free house site pattas for them near Chithodu nearly four years ago.It had conducted over 450 awareness classes at various institutions in the district on AIDS in the last two years and has also organised many blood tests and blood donation camps for aravanis.