12-12-2013 … Director of goa state aids control society dr vandana has said that the decision of supreme court which had upheld the constitutional validity of the penal provision making gay sex an offence punishable with upto life imprisonment would now force people from certain section of the society to avoid coming openly in front of ngo’s and expressing their feelings which would in turn could give a rise to diseases such as aids
It may be noted that in a blow to gay rights activists, the Supreme Court on Wednesday had upheld the constitutional validity of the penal provision making gay sex an offence punishable with upto life imprisonment.
A bench of justices G S Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya set aside the Delhi High Court’s verdict which had in 2009 decriminalised gay sex among consenting adults in private.
The bench allowed the appeals filed by various social and religious organisations challenging the high court verdict on the ground that gay sex is against the cultural and religious values of the country
While hearing the appeal, the apex court had pulled up the Centre for its “casual” approach on the issue of decriminalisation of homosexuality and also expressed concern over Parliament not discussing such important matters and blaming judiciary instead for its “over-reach”.
The Centre had earlier informed the apex court that there are an estimated 25 lakh gay people and about seven per cent (1.75 lakh) of them are HIV-infected.
In its affidavit, the Union Health Ministry had said it was planning to bring four lakh high-risk ‘men who have sex with men (MSM)’ under its AIDS control programme and it has already covered around two lakh of them.
According to the information available with the office of goa state aids control society
The state has three ngo who through its latest survey has identified the population of men having sex with men such as
Rishta an NGO–which is situated at naikavaddo in calangute north goa has identified a total of around 600 population (MSM) in areas of betim, verem, nerul, mapusa, pernem bicholim and sattari in the current year of 2012-2013 …
Humsafar trust an ngo which is situated at vasco d agama in south goa has identified a total of around 1100 (MSM) population in areas of vasco, cortalim, zuarinagar, margao, quepem, sarvormdem, sada, mangoor hill in the current year of 2012-2013 …
While the third ngo by name zindagi (darpan) goa which is situated at agaccaim in north goa has identified a total of around 600 (MSM) population in areas of tiswaddi and ponda talukas in the current year of 2012-2013 …
According to the report from the officials of the goa state aids control society the ratio of number of men having sex with men who are contacted with aids virus are 5 out of 100 from its last survey which was done way back in the year 2010 …
