Human Immunodeficiency Virus / Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a significant public health problem in India (World Bank, 2015a). India has the world’s third largest population of people living with HIV/AIDS (2.1 million) after South Africa and Nigeria (National AIDS Control Organisation [NACO], 2014a; World health Organisation [WHO], 2015). Although India has a low adult HIV prevalence (0.3%) (WHO, 2014a), some communities in …show more content…
The NACP comes under the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) which is a division of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) (Bachani & Sogarwal, 2010; National AIDS Control Organisation [NACO], 2014a). The NACP Phase III (2007 – 12) which has experienced delays, is currently being implemented. HIV counselling is a key entry point for the NACP services providing HIV diagnosis, counselling, treatment and support (NACO, 2004). HIV counselling aims to provide the clients, who are either referred or walk in voluntarily, with quality support for coping with a positive or a negative test result and with HIV prevention information and advice (NACO, 2004; NACO, …show more content…
Counselling assures the access to HIV related services and protection from stigma and discrimination and thus has been an integral part of WHO’s guidelines for best practice in HIV services. (ILO, 2005; WHO, 2007). Despite the recognised importance of HIV counselling, there are serious barriers to the effectiveness of the service in the Indian context. The NACP has been a vertical donor-driven programme since its inception in 1992 (Global Fund, 2013; NACO, 2015b); this means NACP is not integrated within the national health system. NACP phase III derived 55% of funding from donors and the rest from the national health budget of India. Donor funding has diminished since the last decade and this poses a challenge for the long term sustainability of the programme (GoI, 2013; Mishra, 2014; NACO,