A Ugandan legislator has proposed "chastity" scholarships for girls who can prove they are virgins when applying for university admission.

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Author: Kigotho, Wachira

Sulaiman Madada, a member of Parliament, says he hopes to raise money for the scholarships, which he believes would encourage schoolgirls to seek higher education and avoid early marriage and exposure to AIDS. "We do not want these girls to get exposed to AIDS, and I believe chastity scholarships will make a difference," he told the Ugandan daily newspaper New Vision. Kayunga, his district in central Uganda, has one of the nation's highest HIV-infection rates in the country.

Mr. Madada plans to attach stringent conditions to the scholarships. Applicants must have medical examinations to prove that they have never had intercourse. Critics of the plan worry that the standard medical test for virginity is not exact and could lead to some girls' wrongly being denied scholarships and labeled as promiscuous. Others say the project discriminates against girls who have been raped or abused.

But the plan has gained support among many Ugandans, including Florence Nayiga Ssekabira, the government's minister for the elderly and disabled. Janet Museveni, wife of President Yoweri Museveni, recently organized an abstinence march and held a party for Ugandan virgins.

Uganda's AIDS-control program stresses abstinence, monogamy, and condom use, says the epidemiologist Joshua Musingusi, the program's manager. He says that while the HIV-infection rate has declined, girls are six times as likely to be infected as are boys the same age because older men from heavily infected age groups engage in sex with teenage girls.

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By Wachira Kigotho