During International AIDS Conference, the UNICEF Deputy Executive Director, Geeta Rao Gupta said that there is an urgent need to pay special attention to violence and poverty so that the wide spread problem of AIDS could be addressed.

If one looks at the AIDS figures then one will find that half of the AIDS population comprises of women. It is estimated that about 4.8 million people, under the age of 24 are infected with HIV. It has been found that teenage girls, belonging to poor families, are forced to get married earlier. This, in most of the cases results into HIV infection.

Ms. Geeta said, ``These adolescent girls and young women, our sisters and daughters, represent an unfinished agenda in the AIDS response". During the conference, the need of bringing gender equality was echoed among the members.

There are many girls like Hellen Amuge of Uganda who have become victim of violence and have also been raped consequently. Their husbands, learning about their wives of being affected with HIV, have left them and their children. These poor women need justice as their life have been ruined by selfish men.