Sujatha Rao, director-general of the government's National AIDS Control Organisation, says doctors are increasingly seeing women infected by their husbands.
In some clinics, 1 out of 100 women who come for ante-natal care checkups are HIV positive, she said.
"It is a generalised epidemic," she said. "We have pockets where the prevalence is more than 1 per cent among ante-natal care mothers, so we need to intensify our work."
Even though HIV drugs are free, only about 155,000 people have access to retroviral drugs, up from 20,000 just two years ago.
Health expert say there are many people who do not know they are infected or who do not know that treatment is available.
Some health professionals believe India's HIV problem is closely intertwined with poverty and that the Government must tackle poverty if it seeks to curb the spread of HIV.
"Many of these people are very poor, they worry about food, shelter. So they may not think their HIV status is a problem because they don't even know where their next meal is coming from," said Errol Arnette of the help group Sahara.
"A lot of AIDS patients die of TB because it's hard for hospitals to keep them (in hospital). HIV patients are just thrown in a corner because of heavy stigma."
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