AIDS and Youth

Deke Tourangbam *

In the modern society of Manipur everyone constantly hears about AIDS. The word AIDS at the very first instance commonly brings about a sense of Shame for the victims and topic of taboo to discuss about. It seems not right on the part of the educated individuals to continue such outlook when AIDS has made quite a deep impact on our society.

Acquire ammuno deficiency syndrome generally called AIDS is a dreaded disease. It destroys a person’s Immune system making the person susceptible to various diseases. This disease is caused by a VIRUS called HIV or Human immuno deficiency virus. Once a person acquires this virus he develops various diseases finally leading to his dead. Individuals with full blown AIDS die within 3 years from various infectious diseases.There are no cure for AIDS neither any vaccine has been developed so far.

AIDS is a global disease which has no boundary of region, religion, race or sex.As such it has also hit the shores of our country. The very first case of AIDS was detected in Georgia district of America in the year 1981. In India it was first detected in 1986 in Madras (Chennai) and in Manipur AIDS was firsts detected in 1990.

The badly affected states of our country are Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and our own state Manipur. But when scenario with respect to Manipur comes in view it is quite alarming. It can even be said that Manipur is sitting on an AIDS time bomb.

Manipur with only 0.2% of India’s total population contribute nearly 8% of India’s HIV +ve cases. So far a total of 9,732 HIV positive cases, 574 AIDS cases, 97 deaths have been reported in our state of Manipur. Still there are greater numbers of undetected and un-confirmed deaths caused due to AIDS.

In other states of India AIDS is mainly spread through sexual contact and very less through IDU users where as in our state Manipur, 76% of AIDS patient are found among the drug users of which the youth (11 to 40 yrs) form 95% of victim.

The main reason behind of this being that Manipur is very closed to the “Golden Triangle” the haven for drugs and lies in the international trade route, secondly the problem prevailing in the state like law and order problems and failures, high scale un-employment, economic backwardness, degrading social, moral, Cultural and Qualitative education, which all has compounded the problem. Today the AIDS disease has acquired the dimension of and epidemic. Among the affected victims mostly is the youth generation which plays a key role in the development of the society.

The free accesses to drugs the immoral behaviour of the youth’s make them highly vulnerable to this disease. Youth generation infact are the key generation of the society. They are responsible for various developmental activities. Inspite of it youth is the time when people like to have fun and explore new things.

So, in this fast trend of westernization society they start using Drugs and developing multiple sexual partners which are the key route of transmission of AIDS virus.If the total youth population is affected than the continuity of the society will be threatened and a complete wipe out of the society will take place as they formed the backbone of the society.

Inspite of many awareness campaigns being organized on the topic. People are still ignorant about the cause with a perception of personal exceptions.

The precaution for this starts with oneself. Every section of society should unite to fight the spread of this menace.

The latest propaganda of marriage after blood test rather than matching the horoscope greatly fits the longevity of relations. A popular education consisting of Moral, Social and Cultural upliftment should be imparted so that all can maintain high values of Character and regard their own rich cultural heritage to that of Western cultures.

Thus it needs a earnest efforts from parens,teachers,social workers and the government organizations to see the magnitude of the problem and start working collectively lest the problem becomes the cause of our end.