GURGAON, India, Dec 18 (Reuters) - Jagdish Singh drives his truckload of marble along the dusty Jaipur-Delhi highway. As the sun sets, he stops at a ramshackle roadside cafe for a snack. These roadside cafes, known as dhabas, are the closest thing to home for some drivers. They offer food, company -- and sex. As night falls, prostitutes gather just behind the cafe in a dimly lit huddle of huts.But what truck drivers see as a casual diversion has become one of the most common routes of transmission in India for the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which leads to AIDS. Filthy trucks line the road as hundreds of other drivers wait patiently for the ban on trucks in the Indian capital to be lifted at nine o'clock. Gurgaon, a town some 30 km (18 miles) from Delhi, is known as a transport hub.Meanwhile, Singh eats a leathery circle of bread, a splash of lentil curry and pickles. "Most drivers are having sex on board their trucks or at dhabas," he said,lighting up a cigarette. "I really don't, but a lot of my friends like a bit of fun after they've eaten. The women from the slums can earn some money, the dhaba owner gets customers." 

CASUAL ENCOUNTERS FEED NATIONAL SCOURGE

Outside New Delhi, the Society for the Promotion of Youth and Masses (SPYM) has convinced at  least one dhaba that if it doesn't help stop HIV, its customers could disappear. "Drivers are away from their families 25 to 26 days a month," said Ramesh Kumar, director of SPYM, which promotes education about Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome, or AIDS. "They have a natural urge for sex, and let's face it sex workers are available on the highway...they're an easy target for the virus. It's frightening. Once they've got HIV, it follows them home, spreads to wives,children and so on."Above the aroma of frying garlic and spices from the kitchen of Rosy Dhaba,SPYM has set up a clinic where drivers can get treatment for sexual diseases,and learn a little about AIDS.Counsellors say that up to 70 percent of the men who walk into the clinic already have some kind of sexually transmitted disease, which can mean they are especially vulnerable to HIV infection.

BEHAVIOUR CHANGE STARTS WITH CONDOM USE

It's a matter of developing a relationship with the drivers, if we can develop trust then we can talk about behavioural changes," said Dr Rajneesh Sikhri, a part-time physician with the programme. "If we can get behavioural changes then we can begin to advise on the real issues, like using condoms."

In front of the restaurant, counsellors demonstrate condom use to a group of drivers who nervously sip cups of tea. The condoms cost only one rupee (2.5 U.S. cents) for 10, but price is not the issue."I take fistfuls of condoms and force them to take them away," says Kumar."They're like kids when we talk about sex. "Most don't think twice about it, which is the problem. If these men would talk to their wives about sex, they might have a better experience, and not bother with what the road offers."Studies say millions of Indians have contracted the AIDS virus and that most of them are not aware that they are HIV positive.Officials concede the number of cases is growing."We are trying to estimate the number, but the prevalence is varying from state to state, so the figure could be somewhere between three to four million cases," said Prasada Rao, director of the National Aids Control Organisation.

EXPLOSION OF AIDS SUFFERERS AHEAD

A government study carried out in four states found rates of HIV infection as high as 23.62 per 1,000.Government statistics show that most HIV transmission in India has been through heterosexual sex rather than homosexual relations or sharing of contaminated needles by drug abusers. While deaths from the virus are still low, medical officials say treating sick patients will be the next challenge. Expensive combinations of anti-viral drugs developed in the United States and Europe have reduced deaths from AIDS by as much as 80 percent in the Western world. In India most of these drugs are too expensive for ordinary people."These drugs are freely available in the market and we have abolished customs duty on them...for those who have the money they can buy it in the market," Rao said. "But to make it freely available would be impossible because these drugs are expensive to start with." United Nations AIDS experts say that without effective steps to check the spread of the virus, AIDS could become as prevalent in India as in Africa, where many millions are infected. Experts say that by 2000, one in four HIV infections worldwide will be in Asia.

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