(Updates with Clinton Foundation drug deals, paragraphs 14-16) By Kamil Zaheer NEW DELHI, Nov 30 (Reuters) - India is violating the human rights of its gay minority and undermining a battle against HIV/AIDS by holding on to a "puritan" colonial-era law that bans homosexuality, the UNAIDS country chief said on Thursday. Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which carries a jail term of 10 years for men having sex with men (MSM), is part of India's "head in the sand" approach to gays, said Denis Broun. "These people are discriminated against just because of their sexual preference, for no other reason," Broun told Reuters on the eve of World AIDS day. "It violates their human rights." India has the largest number of people living with HIV/AIDS at 5.7 million, according to UNAIDS, and 85 percent of infections are transmitted through sex. But UNAIDS says the law -- enacted in 1861 by British colonial rulers -- forces homosexuals underground, making it difficult to accurately estimate how much sexual transmission is through MSM and the extent of the epidemic among gay men. Most Indian men who had sex with men were bisexual and risked infecting their female partners, Broun said. The state-run National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) estimates there are at least 2.5 million men who have sex with men in India and terms them as a high-risk group, together with injecting drug users and prostitutes. While it says the real number is likely to be much higher UNAIDS said the number could be anywhere between five and 15 million. AWARENESS GAP A survey released by NACO on Thursday revealed that 20 years after the first AIDS case, slightly over 15 percent of Indians had not heard of HIV. It said more than 42 percent were not aware of two important ways of preventing HIV transmission. The Behaviour Surveillance Survey also showed that only 37.8 percent of female sex workers had tested themselves for HIV. "Given the fact it is 20 years into the epidemic and we have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in prevention activities, this is not a good reflection on our efforts," said Anjali Gopalan, head of Naz Foundation India, a anti-AIDS group. India plans to double the number of children receiving free paediatric anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs to 3,600 immediately, aided by funding from the Clinton Foundation and the French government, and plans to raise that to 10,000 by March next year. "Despite all the programmes, not much has been done for children who are living with HIV for no fault of their own," said former U.S. President Bill Clinton, speaking after the launch of the paediatric ARV clinic in the Indian capital. The Clinton Foundation announced it had negotiated new agreements with Indian drug companies Cipla Ltd. <CIPL.BO> and Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. <RANB.BO> to lower prices of ARV drugs for children. "Cipla and Ranbaxy will price a new child-friendly product -- a three-in-one dispersable tablet that replaces individual solutions which need refrigeration -- for less than $60 a year, or 16 cents for an average child," it said in a statement. "Though the world has made progress in expanding HIV/AIDS treatment to adults, children have been left behind. Only one in 10 children who needs treatment is getting it," he said. India has an estimated 202,000 children infected by HIV, with many of them in urgent need of ARV treatment. Globally, 2.3 million children are living with the virus.
