Street Theater Raises HIV/AIDS Awareness in Delhi Slums Through ADB Project

Conducted by Gender Training Institute, umbrella organization of

Centre for Social Research

An innovative activity to raise community awareness on HIV/AIDS is being undertaken under an Asian Development Bank (ADB) project. This activity is part of a technical assistance on Integrating Poverty Reduction in Programs and Projects that aims to support selected nongovernment organizations (NGOs) working in the areas of poverty and gender. The executing agency for this project is the Department of Economic Affairs of the Government of India. As part of this project, street plays are being organized in selected slums in Delhi, says Sujatha Viswanathan, Social Economist of ADB’s India Resident Mission, who recently attended one such program conducted by Centre for Social Research, where a street play was enacted in a slum in Tirlokpuri in New Delhi. The street play was staged by a slum troupe for the benefit of the slum dwellers attending the program. A survey report on awareness on HIV/AIDS in slums was also released on the occasion.

The advocacy program showed the importance of strengthening cooperation among ADB, NGOs, and the Government in its projects aimed at reducing poverty. ADB recognizes the need for better networking with NGOs to integrate their experience, knowledge, and expertise into its developmental activities. Cooperation with NGOs is an increasingly important aspect of ADB operations in country programming processes, loan and technical assistance activities, and policy development activities.

In early 2003, five grant projects to NGOs were approved in the areas of women and water, AIDS awareness, and counseling in selected slums, income generation through solar dryers, organic farming in selected village clusters, and women’s empowerment in pen-urban villages.

Note: Published in A quarterly newsletter of the India Resident Mission of the Asian Development Bank, September 2003