New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre to explain why it had failed to meet its target of providing free drugs for 100,000 HIV-positive people by 2005 and on what basis it delayed the objective by two years.
"What's the difficulty? Why was the target year shifted?" the three-member bench, headed by the Chief Justice of India Y.K. Sabharwal, asked the Government.
India is home to 5.7 million people living with AIDS-causing HIV, more than any other country in the world, according to United Nations estimates.
Several Indian HIV/AIDS non-government groups complained to the court on Thursday that not only was India's target inadequate, but it was not even being met.
At their request, the court has asked the government to explain by end-September why the 100,000 target had been postponed twice, most recently to 2007, and how it decided on the original 100,000 target.
Only about 50,000 HIV-positive Indians are currently believed to be receiving life-saving anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs free of charge. India's National AIDS Control Organisation says a major obstacle in giving free drugs to more HIV-positive people is that many live in far-flung rural areas where it is difficult to provide regular treatment.
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