rajneesh madhok
SPNer
- Jan 1, 2010
- 517
- 490
- 60
CHANDIGARH: Two NGOs conducting a safe sex survey here recently stumbled upon startling findings on condom use at the Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh Technology Park that houses several BPOs.
The NGO volunteers drawn from Voice and Society for Service to Voluntary Agencies (Sosva) were on an assignment commissioned by the State Aids Control Society (SACS) following National Aids Control Authority (Naco) directives. This was when they received a clutch of complaints on used condoms blocking local sewer lines.
Originally tasked to find out the exposure of young BPO workers to the danger of Aids from unprotected sex, the NGO workers decided to take a closer look at the probelm. Volunteers recalled how they got into the sewers and actually discovered the lines jammed by bloated, used condoms.
These blockages were found in a sewer near a building that housed most of the BPOs. "We found that this line was blocked and condoms obstructed the flow," recalled former SACS deputy director, Vinod Kumar, under whom the project had been launched.
Around 2006, when the survey began, there were about 40 BPOs in the building. Near this structure, there was a washroom and condoms were found there too, Kumar added.
Sovosa realised that they had come up with an encouraging finding —that the educated and employed youth preferred to buy their own rubber instead of surreptitiously pulling them out of vending machine. Flavoured varieties were a rage. "The findings showed how this age group was highly aware of safe sex," he added.
Close to 15,000 men and women work for BPOs at the technology park here. These have mostly come up in the last four years. "Most respondents to our survey said they were wary of using condom vending machines and preferred condoms with flavours of their choice which may not be available in these machines," said S K Verma, member director of Sosva.
"The conclusion: literate migrants, mostly youngmen and women, work for BPOs and condom use among them is high," said Vanita Gupta, of the SACS Chandigarh UT unit said.
Read more: Safe sex in Chandigarh IT park - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...IT-park/articleshow/7025651.cms#ixzz16ySluBM6
Rajneesh Madhok
The NGO volunteers drawn from Voice and Society for Service to Voluntary Agencies (Sosva) were on an assignment commissioned by the State Aids Control Society (SACS) following National Aids Control Authority (Naco) directives. This was when they received a clutch of complaints on used condoms blocking local sewer lines.
Originally tasked to find out the exposure of young BPO workers to the danger of Aids from unprotected sex, the NGO workers decided to take a closer look at the probelm. Volunteers recalled how they got into the sewers and actually discovered the lines jammed by bloated, used condoms.
These blockages were found in a sewer near a building that housed most of the BPOs. "We found that this line was blocked and condoms obstructed the flow," recalled former SACS deputy director, Vinod Kumar, under whom the project had been launched.
Around 2006, when the survey began, there were about 40 BPOs in the building. Near this structure, there was a washroom and condoms were found there too, Kumar added.
Sovosa realised that they had come up with an encouraging finding —that the educated and employed youth preferred to buy their own rubber instead of surreptitiously pulling them out of vending machine. Flavoured varieties were a rage. "The findings showed how this age group was highly aware of safe sex," he added.
Close to 15,000 men and women work for BPOs at the technology park here. These have mostly come up in the last four years. "Most respondents to our survey said they were wary of using condom vending machines and preferred condoms with flavours of their choice which may not be available in these machines," said S K Verma, member director of Sosva.
"The conclusion: literate migrants, mostly youngmen and women, work for BPOs and condom use among them is high," said Vanita Gupta, of the SACS Chandigarh UT unit said.
Read more: Safe sex in Chandigarh IT park - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/...IT-park/articleshow/7025651.cms#ixzz16ySluBM6
Rajneesh Madhok