Awareness and knowledge of AIDS among Indian women: evidence from 13 states*

Over 30,000 ever-married women in 13 (out of 25) Indian states where HIV is thought to be highly prevalent—Maharashtra, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, and ten other less populous states—were surveyed about their awareness and knowledge of AIDS. Only one in six women had heard of AIDS. Among those, knowledge about transmission and prevention is poor. Multivariate analyses reveal that rural, poorly educated, and poor women are the least likely to be AIDS-aware and if aware, have the poorest understanding of the syndrome. Despite low levels of awareness and knowledge, we find a strong positive association between AIDS awareness and knowledge and condom use. Since the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) was first detected in India in 1986, the prevalence of HIV infection has increased rapidly and sizably: a cautious estimate suggests that the rate of seropositivity from convenient samples has increased at least threefold in less than a decade (Dasgupta, Jain, and John 1994; NACO 1995). Current estimates of persons infected with HIV in India range from 1.6 to 1.75 million (Merson, noted in Bollinger, Tripathy and Quinn 1996; Anthony, Mertens and Lal 1995). By the year 2000, it is estimate