Youth of Salia sahi the
biggest slum of Bhubaneswar ,
encompasses an extremely diverse group of individuals as with any habitation,
it is essential for this to be taken into consideration when attempting to
portray the attitudes and awareness of this group towards HIV/AIDS. Falling
under the umbrella category of youth of Salia sahi are commercial sex workers
(CSW), intravenous drug users (IDU), runaway children, child laborers and
students. It could be said that a wider range of opinions and attitudes
regarding HIV/AIDS exist between these aforementioned groups, than would be
apparent between cross-cultural subsets of the respective categories. Some of
the most contrasting viewpoints are evident across different socioeconomic
sections of society. Enormous differences in knowledge, perceived knowledge and
acceptance of HIV/AIDS prevention measure exist between urban and rural youth.
Due to my location (being predominantly situated in New Delhi ), the majority of my direct
exposure to Indian youth was with urban youth. Due to language barriers, my
interaction with urban youth of lower socioeconomic status was low, and
indirect (i.e. communication facilitated by third party). As with youth around
the world, numerous misconceptions exist amongst youth in India . Notion that HIV/AIDS is curable and not
preventable exists, despite existence of billboards dispelling such myths;
illiteracy a fundamental impediment too many awareness initiatives. Much fear and concern surrounding disease
resulting from tone of earlier mass awareness campaigns supported by government
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