Students, stars, activists join govt to mark World AIDS day

At the venue, the representatives of the university teams were handed over the symbolic torch mashaal to mark the launching of the second phase of the campaign. The Minister for Public Works Nitin Gadkari, who was the chief guest, awarded the overall championship trophies of the four day meet to the University of Mumbai. Shivaji University, Kolhapur was the runners up. The function culminated in a mashaal dance in the formation of the map of India by 200 sportsmen and women from Bombay Physical Association’s college at Wadala. Students from other colleges from Mumbai and Nagpur universities joined by 500 boys and girls from BMC schools carrying torches and banners of Sanyam- Suraksha-Sanskar (patience-safety-values) accompanied by mass singing in the stadium of a special song in Hindi. The N Dalmia Institute of Management Studies and Research organised a two-day programme on AIDS awareness on November 30 and December 1. Eighty students from the institute distributed 5,000 booklets on AIDS between Churchgate station and Mantralaya today. They also took out a peace march in this area before presenting a memorandum to the health minister. The Forum Against Drugs and AIDS felt that one reason for low communication on the disease is because the campaign is mainly conducted in English. It held an exhibition at the Churchgate station, in Hindi and Marathi, drew large crowds who were otherwise busy grabbing free condoms. An MTV-Rotaract Club of Bombay South also distributed pamphlets on AIDS at the station.

Starting this week Channel (V) will run short AIDS awareness films, which shows the views of 14 celebs on the issue. Among those appearing in these short 30-seconds clips are Shobha De, Javed Akhtar, Raghu Rai, Shiamak Davar, Pooja Bhatt, Aamir Khan, Riyad Wadia and Sanjana Kapoor. In one of the clips Pooja Bhatt says, "Don’t wait for your death-wish to be announced to you. Look at life for what it is. Respect it and respect yourself."