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Context The state of HIV/AIDS is deteriorating in Nepal without any respite. Realising the gravity of the crisis of the epidemic, the central government, health sector, some of the local governments including municipal governments and other non-health related projects, have started their own initiations to address the HIV/AIDS problem. Rural Urban Partnership Programme (RUPP), a UNDP assisted project is working with 12 municipalities and 33 Rural Market Centres (RMCs), with the several important objectives including poverty alleviation through good governance and mainstreaming HIV/AIDS in municipal planning and activities. Realising that a good planning must be based on a true situation, RUPP, in its support to mainstreaming HIV/AIDS in municipal planning and development activities of the municipalities, conducted a survey assessing the situation of HIV/AIDS of the partner municipalities. This profile is a compilation of reports of the survey conducted in the 12 partner municipalities. Why this survey was done? This survey was done with the objective of assessing the situation of HIV/AIDS of the partner municipalities. Understandably, data obtained from the survey would be a significant input for planning, and strategy - to be formulated for the municipal response to HIV/AIDS. The information obtained from this survey may not tally with the information projected by other NGOs working for sex workers and injecting drug users. This survey, however, is very significant, in a sense that, Tole/Lane Organization (TLO, a grass-root level community organization) themselves conducted the risk mapping of HIV/AIDS of their respective communities and also admitted both- the very existence of the problem and the magnitude of the problem in their respective communities. The other objective of this survey was to provide TLOs with an opportunity to assess the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS in their own communities. Based on their own assessment, TLOs can plan their response to HIV/AIDS and include it in Tole Development Plan (TDP). Similarly, based on their own assessment, TLO can provide credit supports to those who are vulnerable to HIV/AIDS because of their economic condition for their economic empowerment. Besides, this profile will also help other agencies working in the field of HIV/AIDS to design their intervention as this profile presents the situation of HIV/AIDS of the partner municipalities. The survey was a structured questionnaire survey conducted at each Tole / Lane Organization level of all the partner municipalities . A questionnaire was designed to assess number of sex workers, number of injecting drug users, number of mobile population and number of people living with HIV/AIDS from community level or TLO. Most of TLOs filled the questionnaire during their gathering or regular meetings. In the Nepalese context, where people do not open themselves up to talk about sexuality and sex, there were some initial difficulties in administering the questionnaire. This problem is relatively well addressed in those TLOs where the HIV/AIDS training / orientation was followed by the questionnaire survey. This survey did not stipulate any definition of sex workers, injecting drug users and migrant workers; instead, it relied on communities own perceptions of sex workers, injecting drug users and migrants workers. For the purpose of this survey, only those male are considered as migrant workers who work in India and abroad for more than three months. This criterion was necessary to apply because as male make often and regular short visits outside the country, especially to India, for other purposes (business) as well. The same kind of criterion was not applied for female migrant workers, as it was not deemed necessary for female, as they are not as mobile as their male counterpart of the Nepalese society. This survey also includes trafficked girls and sex workers as female migrant workers even though they are not migrant in the sense they are not mobile as other migrant workers. This survey takes account of all the male migrants who work in India and abroad, however, it does not takes account of the female migrants who work outside India as the communities consider female working outside India is still a rare phenomenon. This survey, dealing with the issue of HIV/AIDS and involving all the community organizations of the partner municipalities, is conducted for the first time and undoubtedly has left a lot of rooms for improvement. One of the lessons learned from communities, is that it is relatively easier to estimate the number of injecting drug users than estimating number of sex workers.
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