NEW DELHI, Dec 1 (AFP) - AIDS awareness activists and government agencies distributed condoms among prostitutes in New Delhi's main red light district on World AIDS Day Wednesday.

"We are distributing condoms among thousands of girls working in the city's 96-odd brothels," said Khairati Lal Bhola of the Forum for the Uplift of Indian Prostitutes.

"We have shouted ourselves hoarse telling sex workers to use condoms to minimise the risk of contracting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that leads to AIDS."

Prostitutes in New Delhi's main red light district complain of an acute shortage of condoms which are supplied free of charge by the government.

Nimmi Bai, who runs a brothel, told AFP the supply of health department condoms was simply not enough to meet the huge demand.

"Everyone is frightened about AIDS and so are we. But where are the condoms? Going by the number of prostitutes operating here we need at least 40 to 50 boxes of condoms every month," said Nimmi Bai.

"But we hardly get 10 to 20 boxes and they never arrive on a fixed date. In July we got only 10 boxes after a gap of three full months."

Bai added the prostitutes could not afford to buy their own condoms.

There are more than 3,500 prostitutes working in the New Delhi red light area, known locally as G.B. Road.

Bai said that with the rise in the number of HIV-positive cases in India, brothel owners were becoming more aware of the threat.

"I just tell my girls to be very firm with clients who don't want to wear condoms. We have phelwans (tough guys) to throw out the ones kicking up a fuss," said Bai.

In Bombay, the chief of the Peoples Health Organisation (PHO), Ishwar Gilada, said the western port city had the largest number of full-blown AIDS patients in the country and 250,000 HIV-positive cases.

To shake up the city's residents, the PHO took out a colourful street march which ended in the red-light areas of south Bombay.

AIDS crusaders installed a 15-foot tall effigy representing the HIV virus at the end of the street march. Gilanda said the effigy would be burnt on December 6 at the end of their AIDS-awareness week.

While HIV cases initially spread among drug users, prostitutes and their clients, it now touches all sections of Indian society -- 80 percent are under 30 years of age, health authorities say.

India, which accounts for 60 percent of HIV cases in Asia, has been criticised by activists for government apathy towards the spread of the disease.

"Government steps to stop AIDS from blowing out of proportion remain inadequate. It has tried too often to sweep the issue under the carpet. But the government simply cannot wish the problem away," said Bhola.

India admitted for the first time this month that as many as 3.5 million people nationwide were carrying the HIV virus that leads to AIDS.

A health ministry report which contained figures for the urban population up to mid-1998, said 1.4 million males living in urban India were HIV-positive, compared to 800,000 women.

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