Bangalore, Oct 12 A group of sex workers from across Karnataka came together here Monday to inaugurate Ashodaya Academy, a regional centre on HIV and AIDS to be run by the sex workers themselves to fight the spread of the disease.

The academy is located in Mysore, nearly 150 km from here, and is said to be the first of its kind in the entire Asia Pacific to be run by sex workers for prevention of HIV and AIDS.

The project is a collaboration of Unaids and Ashodaya Samiti, a Mysore-based organisation working for the welfare and health issues of sex workers in Karnataka.

"The Ashodaya Academy is the first learning site on HIV-AIDS in the Asia Pacific region run entirely by sex workers. The idea behind the academy is to develop the role of sex workers themselves in raising awareness about AIDS and its further prevention," executive director of Unaids Michel Sidibe said at the inaugural ceremony held here.

"They are the MARP (most at risk population) to HIV-AIDS and thus sex workers can play a key role in HIV prevention and intervention," added Sidibe.

Lauding the effort of Unaids and Ashodaya Samiti to start the academy, Chief Minister B. S. Yeddyurappa said the launch of the site was a milestone as sex workers had been given a key role in AIDS prevention.

"Karnataka is one of the six states in the country where the prevalence of AIDS is high. The government of Karnataka has sanctioned Rs. 1 crore to help the children of victims of HIV-AIDS in the state for the year," Yeddyurappa said.

A group of sex workers from Myanmar, Bangladesh, Nepal, Cambodia and Thailand participated in the inauguration ceremony.

"Declared as a learning site, the Ashodaya Academy will provide opportunities to consolidate the valuable experiences and learning of sex workers in scaling up prevention, intervention, mobilization of communities and ensure delivery of services. It's an effort to showcase the fact that when sex workers are in the lead, they can change the course of the HIV epidemic," said Sushena Reza Paul, adviser at Ashodaya Samiti.

The National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) has marked Karnataka as a "highly prevalent state".

The Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society (KSAPS) estimates that the state has 85,000 sex workers. It also estimates that the state has 250,000 HIV infected people and 33,000 suffering from AIDS.

An estimated 2.5 million people in India, aged between 15 and 49, are feared to be living with HIV and AIDS, the third largest in the world.

"It's a proud moment for us and we have come together to fight the spread of dreaded HIV-AIDS," said Partima, a sex worker based in Mysore. (IANS)