National AIDS Control Organisation

 

The National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), established in 1992, is a department of the Indian Ministry of Health and Family Welfare that provides leadership to the HIV/AIDS control programme in India through 35 HIV/AIDS prevention and control societies and is "the central organisation for policy formulation and implementation of HIV/AIDS prevention and control programmes in India." The NACO is the largest HIV/AIDS control organisation in India.

Together with drug control agencies and NACO, NACO oversees the licencing of blood banks, blood donation activities, and the investigation and reporting of transfusion-transmitted infections.

NACO also conducts biennial (every 2 years) HIV estimates in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) - National Institute of Medical Statistics (NIMS). The first round of HIV estimation in India took place in 1998 and the latest round in 2017.

In 2010, NACO approved the Teach Aids curriculum for use in India, an innovation that for the first time allowed HIV/AIDS education to be delivered in a curriculum that did not need to be coupled with sex education.

In 2012, the National AIDS Control Organisation, along with 16 other organisations working on HIV/AIDS, hosted the "Hijra Habba" event as part of the "Pehchan" programme. The event was attended by more than 100 representatives of the transgender and hijra community from 17 states, who interacted with members of the government, NGOs, and civil society.