Students want HIV test to be made mandatory before marriage

More than 90 per cent students of Panjab University want HIV tests to be made mandatory before marriage, as revealed in a survey conducted by Yuva Sankalpa Foundation (YSF) in the hostels of the varsity.

The foundation had started a programme 'YUVA' or Youth Unites for Valiant Action in September last year. Interactive sessions on the history of AIDS, present scenario, signs and symptoms, treatment and use of condoms etc. would be held in all 11 hostels. The survey covered 435 students, comprising 186 males and 249 females.
The result revealed that 75 per cent of the students did not approve of sex before marriage. However, 64 per cent felt that kissing and hugging were permissible. Interestingly, around 60 per cent approved of sexual relations before marriage provided a condom was used.

Only 21 per cent of the 330 respondents answered in affirmative to whether they used condoms during a sexual encounter. More than 90 per cent of the students felt that unprotected sex was the biggest hurdle in combating HIV/AIDS

74.2 per cent were rightly informed that it spreads through a virus and were of the opinion that HIV positive people should not be isolated from the general community but they had no knowledge about testing facilities, female condoms and treatment of the disease.

Gaurav Gaur, a member of the foundation said that he did not find the students apprehensive during the interactions. " They were very forthcoming and had lots of queries and the sessions used to last for hours."