World AIDS Day:

World AIDS Day:

• It is observed on 1st December

• AIDS is a pandemic disease caused by the infection of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), which damages the human immune system.
• It is a chronic, potentially life-threatening condition.
• By damaging immune system, HIV interferes with the body’s ability to fight infection and disease.
• The virus can be transmitted through contact with infected blood, semen or vaginal fluids.
• AIDS symptoms include weight loss, fever or night sweats, fatigue and recurrent infections.
• No cure exists for AIDS.
• Strict adherence to antiretroviral regimens (ARVs) can slow the disease’s progress and prevent secondary infections and complications.

Initiatives by India

• India’s unique HIV prevention model is centered around the concept of ‘Social Contracting’ through which the ‘Targeted Interventions Program’ is implemented.
• The HIV & AIDS Prevention and Control Act, 2017, provides a legal and enabling framework to safeguard the human rights of infected and affected populations.
• India is providing free anti-retro-viral treatment to close to 1.4 million people.

• Project Sunrise: Launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (2016) to tackle the rising HIV prevalence in north-eastern states 
• The Red Ribbon: Wearing a ribbon is a way to raise awareness on and during the run up to World AIDS Day.
• 90-90-90: 90% of those who are HIV positive in India know their status, 90% of those who know their status are on treatment and 90% of those who are on treatment experience effective viral load suppression.
• Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM): It is designed to accelerate the end of AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria as epidemics.

National AIDS Control Program

• Launched by: The National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) launched in 1992-1999.
• NACO is a division of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• India is gradually transitioning the people living with HIV to Dolutegravir (a safer and efficacious anti-retro-viral medication regimen).

Employment of Rural Youth

Part of: Prelims and Mains GS – II – Government policies and interventions

1. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS): This is a demand driven wage employment programme which provide for the enhancement of livelihood security of the households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment in every financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.
2. Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY): This is a placement linked skill development programme for wage employment.
3. Skill development through Rural Self Employment and Training Institutes (RSETIs): This enables a trainee to take bank credit and start his/her own Micro-enterprise. Some of such trainees may also seek regular salaried jobs.
4. Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY): For Skill based training of the youth across the country including of youth belonging to Scheduled Caste/ Scheduled Tribe/ Economically weaker Section under Short Term Training (STT) courses and Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL). 
5. Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP): Ministry of Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises is implementing Prime Minister’s Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP), which is a major credit-linked subsidy programme aimed at generating self-employment opportunities through establishment of micro-enterprises in the non-farm sector by helping traditional artisans and unemployed youth. PMEGP Scheme facilitates generation of self-employment opportunities through establishment of micro-enterprises in the non-farm sector by helping traditional artisans and unemployed youth. 

News Source: PIB