According to Dilip Thapa, vice-president of National Association of People living with HIV/AIDS, the Global Fund had allocated budget for providing monthly allowances to around 2200 HIV-positive children in various nine districts of Nepal in March, 2011. [break]However, the HIV-positive children are yet to receive the monthly allowances of Rs 1500.
“The government should have started providing monthly allowances to the HIV-positive children from last year only,” says Thapa. “Almost two years on, we still do not know where the budget has been spent,” he said. At the fourth national AIDS conference that concluded on Tuesday in Pokhara, various organizations working in the field of HIV/AIDS had enquired about the fund.
Krishna Kumar Rai, Director of National Center of AIDS and STD Control (NCASC), informed that the process of distributing monthly allowances to the HIV-positive children has been postponed despite the allocation of budget.
“Monthly allowances for the HIV-positive children are higher than those meant for the elderly, single women and physically disabled people,” Rai said.
“If we start distributing Rs 1500 to the HIV-positive children, others may also ask the same amount. Similarly, the provision for allowances may expose the victims to the society. Therefore, we have yet not started distributing the allowances,” argued Rai.
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