Female adolescents in ganjam district of odisha – a situational analysis in the context of HIV/AIDS

India is the large and second most populous country in the world. It has a large population with low literacy levels and constituently low level of awareness and HIV/AIDS is one of the most challenging public health problem ever faced by the country. In our country there are 8.3 crores girls in the age group of 11 to 18 years which constitute 17% of the total female population of 49.69 crores among them 39% (9.3 Lakhs) of HIV positive (Unicef). New infections in females are occurring faster than in males. The dreaded AIDS virus has been spreading like wildfire in Aska Block, around 415 AIDS patients have been found the total of 30,176 HIV affected people, in the Odisha State, Ganjam district tops the list of most HIV victims in the state of Odisha with 12,017 people (2017). The research design adopted is quantitative, descriptive and cross sectional. The study attempts to describe female adolescents’ knowledge, understanding and attitude towards HIV/AIDS. More than half of the adolescents under study have negative attitude towards people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHAs) and had very bitter feelings towards them even they believe that they should be boycott because it was very tedious to include them in the mainstream in the society. One fifth of the adolescents believe that they should be killed. The levels of understanding of adolescents with regard to HIV/AIDS and the people are affected with is to be raised significantly. Innovative non-classroom tools and techniques like peer educators, street plays, film screening could be used.