Assessment of the Stigma Associated with the HIV among the Adolescents and Ways to Reduce the Stigma

Stigma is a major cause of discrimination as well as exclusion affecting people's self-esteem, disrupting their family relationships and limiting their ability to socialize, denying basic facilities such as housing and jobs; it is a great hurdles for both mental well-being and effective treatment / care. Researcher finds that stigma leads to abuse of human rights. While Stigma is associated with many diseases, HIV/AIDS is one of the diseases where the person has to bear not only the symptoms / health problems but face the stigma attached to it. Such stigma can only be curbed when people have appropriate sex education/awareness about HIV at the young age and this way learn to accept HIV positive people. This research primarily aims to investigate skills and attitudes of the school teachers especially those who teach biology and are responsible for imparting relevant education to the young people about the HIV positive people. A self-structured questionnaire was administered to the biology teachers of various schools of New Delhi in the Month of April 2017. The questionnaire aims to assess awareness level of the teachers on basic knowledge of HIV. 32 samples were collected from the various schools and information was processed through SPSS version. Results were evaluated with the application of cross tabulation and chi square tests and interpreted coming to final conclusion.