The health ministry is focusing on tackling sexually transmitted infections (STI) and reproductive tract infections (RTI) among women, a statement said Wednesday.
A survey conducted in half the country showed 11.6 percent of women suffered from such infections, the health ministry informed Parliament.
Only 39 percent of women surveyed were aware of such infections, compared to more than 57 percent who were aware of HIV/AIDS, the statement from Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Panabaka Lakshmi said.
The husbands of 6.4 percent women also showed symptoms of RTI/STI.
The ministry had supplied drug kits to referral units in states for preventing and treating these infections.
It had also engaged four NGOs - Pune's Society for Service to Voluntary Agencies and Sevadham Trush, Jalgaon's Godvari Foundation and Ahmednagar's Paravara Medical Trust - to increase awareness about these infections.
The survey was carried out under the Reproductive and Child Health programme in 2002-03. The rest of the country would also be covered in the survey, the statement said.
--Indo-Asian News Service