NEW DELHI: India has decided to step up its female condom (FC) programme in a big way in a bid to control the spread of HIV among women. With nearly 50% of the 1.7 lakh fresh cases of HIV reported annually being women, the drive will be expanded from eight states to 17 in the next few months.Though NACO buys FC at over Rs 20 a piece from Hindustan Latex Limited (HLL), it provides them to female sex workers (FSW) for only Rs 3.50 each.As of now, FC is being made available to FSWs in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and Rajasthan.The nine new states, where FC will be given to FSWs via target intervention groups, are Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, Haryana, Punjab, Assam, UP, MP and Chhattisgarh.