Tuesday, September 20 2005 14:52 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) expects its 5,000 plus member companies to adopt its HIV/AIDS Policy for industry by this year-end, a senior Confederation Of India Industry official said today (Sept 20, 2005).

"CII wants to engage the industry" in meeting the challenge of HIV/AIDS, Dr. Tarun Das, Chief Mentor of CII and Managing Trustee of Indian Business Trust for HIV/AIDS told a CII conference on 'Business Response to HIV/AIDS'.

He said some 2,000 companies had already been covered under the HIV/AIDS policy, which includes development of a workplace policy for industry and framing of workplace protocols which are standardized on ISO 9002.

CII has set up the Indian Business Trust in 2000, to bring focus on the HIV/AIDS work, to engage the business leadership and provide a forum of convergence, for the Business' response to AIDS.

The Policy, among others, states the company will provide a safe and healthy work environment for employees, educate its employees on prevention, care and counseling of HIV/AIDS and allow a HIV positive employee to continue to work unless medical conditions interfere with the specific job being done.

Das said a programme had also been taken up to train healthcare professionals, including doctors, so that the medical profession was engaged in dealing with AIDS. 330doctors have been trained under this.

T T Ashok, Chairman, Corporate Social Responsibility Subcommittee and Managing Director of Taylor Rubber Pvt. Ltd, said south India was among high probable states.

He said there could not be a 'soft approach' towards tackling AIDS and it should be dealt with with an 'iron first in a no-holds barred manner'.

Speaking at a panel discussion, Bikramjit Maitra, Vice-President and Head-HR, Infosys Technologies Ltd, said as other professionals, software professionals were also exposed to the risk of HIV/AIDS. Considering their age group and greater mobility, software professionals were also vulnerable and 'we need to do a lot of things (in tackling the issue)'.

Encore Software Ltd Chairman and CEO Vinay L Deshpande said many SME companies had the same mindset' that it (AIDS) could not happen in their firms because "We feel, probably wrongly, we know our employee and it cannot happen to any of them".

There was a need for such companies to 'do something'.

Karnataka Finance Minister P G R Sindhia told the conference that the state had a better healthcare delivery system though it needed upgradation.

He said Government and NGOs should 'move hand in hand' in facing the challenge posed by AIDS and asked the CII to prepare an action plan on AIDS for Karnataka.