A Central team from the National AIDS Control Organisation, New Delhi, which is in the State to evaluate the care, support and treatment programmes implemented by Tamil Nadu, has said that there are lessons here for the rest of the country to follow. For instance, there is high praise for the targeted intervention programme undertaken for the transgender community, unlike in any other State in the country. Sanjeev Jain, technical expert, National Technical Support Unit, said, “Tamil Nadu is the first State that has taken efforts to provide services for transgenders. A welfare board for this community does not exist anywhere else in the country.” Also, he remarked that 50 per cent of the high risk groups in the State have been linked with government services for care and continued support. The programmes for targeted intervention groups that have been implemented in the State, some with the support of the non-governmental sector, are among the best in the country, Dr. Jain told The Hindu . “All this should be converted to a learning site for the rest of the nation,” he added. The broad categories that receive targeted intervention in Tamil Nadu are transgenders, female sex workers, men having sex with men, migrant workers, truckers and injecting drug users. Eighty-nine groups are being managed by TANSACS, in association with non-governmental organisations to take awareness, and care and support to these groups. There are 43 centres providing anti-retroviral treatment for persons with HIV/AIDS in Tamil Nadu. About 90 Link ART centres have been started in government hospitals or block level primary health centres in rural and mofussil areas to take treatment closer to the people who require it.