New Delhi/Ludhiana/Coimbatore, Dec 01 (ANI): Hundreds of activists, including AIDS patients staged rallies and demonstrations across India to mark World AIDS Day on Tuesday (December 1) and accused the government of inaction against the fatal disease that has plagued millions in the South Asian nation. World AIDS Day is used to unite people in the fight against HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus first identified in 1984, to show their support for people living with HIV and remember those who have died. The 10 hardest hit countries are India, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Vietnam, China, Cambodia, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea and Pakistan. Popular protest site in capital New Delhi, Jantar Mantar, was teeming with people dressed up as skeletons, holding banners and shouting slogans. They said authorities have failed to conduct tests and provide medication. India’s fight against AIDS is being jeopardised by a cut in social spending by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, with health workers being laid off and programmes to prevent the spread of the deadly disease curtailed. Despite the progress, India accounted for most of the estimated 340,000 new infections in the Asia-Pacific last year and any cut-back to prevention programmes risks seeing rates rise, experts say.
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