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Shillong, Apr 7: The alarming rise in cases of HIV/AIDS in Meghalaya especially among commercial sex workers is a cause for concern, the Assembly Committee on Women Empowerment said on Wednesday.

Chairperson of the committee, Ampareen Lyngdoh said that the state has 5000 HIV positive cases of which 200 are sex workers.

As per records with the Meghalaya Aids Controls Society (MACS), there are 1538 sex workers registered with NGOs. Lyngdoh also expressed the committee’s concern over the fact out of 1000 pregnant cases three women have HIV.

The Chairperson said that the police and Social Welfare departments discussed to address the issue of commercial sex workers.

“The Social Welfare Department has given us assurance that the government will now design a policy specific to address the issue of HIV/AIDS in the background of commercial sex workers,” he said.

Lyngdoh who spoke to media persons after the meeting of the Assembly Committee said that the Social Welfare department has assured that a road map will be to address this very big social evil.

The Assembly Committee also said that the increase in teenage pregnancy in West Jaintia Hills was alarming.

“Authorities have recorded 500 plus pregnancies in the month of March till today. Huge wrong indicator of how things are not going right in the community,” the chairperson said.