**********************************************************
SAATHII Electronic Newsletter
HIV NEWS FROM INDIA

Source: LiveMint.com, American Chronicle, The Times of India,
MSN, Deccan Herald, The Hindu, Bernama and Express India.

Posted on: 18/02/2008

COMPILED BY: Jacob Boopalan, and L. Ramakrishnan
SAATHII Chennai Office.

Note: this compilation contains news items about HIV/AIDS
published in the Indian media, as well as articles relevant to
HIV/AIDS in India published internationally. Articles in this
and previous newsletters may also be accessed at
http://www.saathii.org/orc/elibrary

===============================================================

1. HIV/AIDS patients finally dragging quacks to court
LiveMint.com, February 15, 2008.
http://www.livemint.com/2008/02/15235750/HIVAIDS-patients-finally-drag.html

2. Nepal´s returned HIV positive women face sad plight
American Chronicle, February 15, 2008.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/52517

3. Lack of kits halt test at HIV centres
The Times of India,  February 16, 2008.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mumbai/Lack_of_kits_halt_test_at_HIV_centres/articleshow/2786937.cms

4. Two years on, AIDS bill yet to get nod
MSN.com, February 16, 2008.
http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1246144

5. INC gets 33 m Dollar world funding to fight AIDS
Deccan Herald, February 16, 2008.
http://www.deccanherald.com/DeccanHerald.com/Content/Feb162008/state2008021652679.asp?section=updatenews

6. ‘Table AIDS Bill in budget session’
The Hindu, February 16, 2008.
http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/16/stories/2008021657651300.htm

7. Breaking the silence
The Hindu, February 17, 2008.
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/02/17/stories/2008021750100400.htm

8. More HIV-Infected Couples Tying The Knot In India
Bernama, February 17, 2008.
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news_world.php?id=314392

9. Free medicines, transport is all they want for battle against HIV
Express India, February 18, 2008.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Free-medicines-transport-is-all-they-want-for-battle-against-HIV/274249/

===============================================================

1. HIV/AIDS patients finally dragging quacks to court
LiveMint.com, February 15, 2008.
http://www.livemint.com/2008/02/15235750/HIVAIDS-patients-finally-drag.html

With the help of state laws and advocacy groups, some patients 
are filing lawsuits to get their money returned or banning false 
advertising to put the doctors out of business

Mumbai: When 37-year-old Shantaram found out he was HIV-positive 
a few years ago, he was overwhelmed with fear—of discrimination, 
of death.

Then he read about a cure in a local newspaper.

Caught in the Net: Jondhale’s website offers a cure for HIV/AIDS.

Suddenly hopeful, Shantaram decided to stake all he had—his tractor, 
his savings, even his land—to undergo the treatment at a clinic 
in Nanded, Maharashtra, run by a homeopath, Siddharth M. Jondhale. 
He paid some Rs1 lakh for six months of treatment.

“I was so anxious, I was willing to try anything,” says Shantaram, 
who did not wish to be identified by his full name.

But, at the end of the treatment, he remained HIV-positive.

More than two decades after the discovery of India’s first HIV/AIDS 
case, a period marked by steady awareness of the disease, thousands 
of patients such as Shantaram continue to be drawn in by doctors 
who claim to offer a cure. Now, with the help of state laws and 
advocacy groups, some patients are filing lawsuits to get their 
money returned or banning false advertising to put the doctors 
out of business.

“Many HIV-positive people fall for these claims because they are 
afraid of the stigma that the disease brings,” says Shabana Patel, 
president of the Network of Maharashtra by People Living with 
HIV/AIDS. The network typically receives more than 50 such 
complaints from HIV-positive patients each month. “It’s only 
when they realize that it is not working that they come to us 
seeking help.”

With a local network of HIV-positive people, Shantaram found the 
means to fight back and is now on anti-retroviral therapy drugs. 
A few months ago, the network’s Nanded district chapter filed 
public interest litigation against some of the “doctors” offering 
cures for HIV/AIDS in and around Nanded, including Jondhale.

On 10 October 2007, the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high 
court passed interim orders against three such doctors who 
claimed their alternative treatments cured AIDS: Jondhale, Bhai 
Amarjeet Singh Major Punjab Singh Gill and Rajesh Pandit.

The court also issued an order prohibiting the respondents from 
claiming through advertisements or any other medium that a cure 
or treatment for HIV/AIDS exists or that they are qualified 
medical practitioners who can provide a cure or treatment. Making 
such claims for diseases that contemporary medicine deems incurable 
(such as cancer and HIV/AIDS) is illegal under the Indian law, 
unless it is scientifically tried and tested, and conclusively 
proven curative. 

===============================================================

2. Nepal´s returned HIV positive women face sad plight
American Chronicle, February 15, 2008.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/52517

In dusty Raxaul south of Kathmandu, on a pale, cold winter´s 
morning the plight of a young Nepali woman being trafficked to 
India for the commercial sex sector is just beginning to unfurl. 
Sarswoti, from Dhading district bordering Nepal´s capital, 
Kathamndu, has been brought here promised of a lucrative job by 
Tirtha Ram a middleman, who actually is her first cousin. He has 
lured her with promises of posh South Extension flat in New Delhi´s 
well to do neighborhood, and many of Sarswoti's friends and cousins 
have left for India earlier attracted by such promises. Tirtha´s 
narrated story to her parents is all too believable for Sarswoti, 
whose life all depends on her parent´s wishes as in most parts 
of Nepal where a woman has little individual rights particularly 
if she is uneducated. Tirtha has told them that that the Indian 
owner for whom Sarswati is going to work is in the Gulf region, 
she is going to be paid Rs. 3000 (US%5) for every month she has 
served. Sarswoti will get free accommodation, food, and be able 
to roam freely on weekends to go and watch the movies in the big 
eye catching Indian cosmopolitan city of New Delhi with new friends 
she will soon make once there. It is only when Sarswoti travels 
further south down the narrow dusty bus lane and reaches Gorakhpur 
she suddenly realizes that things are not as Tirtha Ram had 
promised. Tirtha has already left the day before making a clever 
alibi that he has to go and make a phone call to his wife in Nepal. 
Soon an unknown woman enters the small little dingy room she has 
been kept in. The woman tells Sarswoti that she is pretty, young, 
very fair and good looking. She is going to adopt her as her 
daughter; Tirtha has already gone back to the Indo-Nepalese border 
to get another group of women across to Gorakhpur.

At first this Indian ´guardian´ mother of Nepalese descent drugs 
Sarswoti and locks her up in a room for three days without food 
and only a sip of water. When Sarswoti protests, she starts 
cursing her, and soon physically punishing her. In a week´s time, 
Sarswoti is gang raped, intimidated with cigarettes, burning 
charcoal heaped on her arms and thighs, left hungry with bruises 
all over her body, with no one to complain to, in total misery 
and no one to help her out. Meanwhile her parents in Dhading 
seem all too happy with Tirtha for giving them Rs. 18,000 equivalent, 
or roughly US $280 for Sarswoti as a salary advancement.

From Nepal, anywhere between 10,000 to 15,000 women have been 
trafficked this way to India to serve as commercial sex workers 
in like manner. The major conduits are the infamous Makwanpur 
alley, Birtamod in the Eastern Region and Nepalgunj in the Far 
Western region. The Nepali girls and young women aged between 
12-29 years old are sold through Nepalese and Indian commercial 
sex agents finally ending up in the sex outlets in bigger 
Indian cities such as Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore and Kolkata 
involving nearly three to four middlemen like Tirtha Ram.

Most girls who are impoverished in poverty until the ages of 12-16 
years are booked in advance by their parents for as little as 
US $200 to the agents, the prettier girls fetch between US $300-400 
according to reports from independent Nepalese survey on child 
and women trafficking and organizations such as Asia Foundation 
and Human Rights Watch Asia which have stepped in the forefront 
of trying to stop the crime.

Usually, the girls are transported in a group of 10-15 across 
the porous border to the various Indian cities. This is happening 
every day as Ind0-Nepalese border is a porous one and has been 
serving child traffickers for nearly one a half decades now with 
few interruptions. Also, in the absence of a strong government 
in Kathmandu, due to the failing policies of the seven party 
coalitions that rules Nepal at present; even the gravest crime 
goes unpunished.

For more than a decade, some of Nepal´s top legal experts have 
been drawing the UN and the world´s attention to the child 
trafficking issue occurring between India and Nepal. Well known 
Nepalese legal eagles such as Dr. Shanta Thapaliya, Shambu Thapa 
(former Chairman of Nepal Bar Association), and Sapana Pradhan 
Malla who all are child rights advocates, Believe the Constitution 
of Nepal has guaranteed the right of equality to women including 
property and self-development rights, but offers very little 
practicing equality. Mr. Gauri Pradhan who has been running CWIM 
for more than three decades in Kathmandu, dedicated to Child 
Welfare and education of street children also is in agreement 
that child rights has been perhaps forgotten as core area of 
understanding in Nepalese human rights practice.

The Nepalese Constitution has also accorded childhood freedoms 
to every Nepali girl child since Nepal was one of the first 
countries to sign the Convention on the Rights of him Child, 1990, 
but the real achievement in realizing child rights in Nepal is 
next to nil, despite the claims of various international agencies. 
The truth, according to the Harvard educated Dr. Thapaliya. 

In a recent anti trafficking report appears to be that in Nepal 
women have long been discriminated upon when they are known to 
contribute to nearly 60% of the country´s Gross Development 
Product. The government has simply been turning a blind eye to 
the issue of women trafficking and child prostitution. Thus many 
legal voices in Nepal and also many powerful NGO leaders in India 
are now jointly trying to coordinate efforts and draw on the 
ethical argument that children should be given all the time until 
age 16 to enjoy their childhood freedoms, while the traffickers 
should be punished severely with imprisonment, not only meager 
fines.

Nepal, which had faced an internal civil conflict between 1986-2006, 
has seen a big stream of its children, particularly in Western 
Nepal, facing commercial exploitation through middle men in being 
transported to brothels in various Indian cities. Not only have 
these young girls ended up in Indian circuses and households as 
bonded servants, many have ended up working as life long commercial 
sex workers. Some graduate in a decade or two to become brothel 
owners themselves, employing between 7 to a dozen young Nepalese 
females in each commercial sex venue.

In 2007, various Indian and Nepalese estimates put the total 
number of Nepalese commercial sex workers in India at around 
200,000 to 300,000, though this is considered a low estimate. 
Nearly half of the women in Mumbai, who ply commercial sex work 
totaling 120,000, are estimated to be Nepalese, a cording to 
various ILO estimates. The women are not only subjugated to 
various forms of torture, gang rape and different sexual acts, 
they face the risk of contracting HIV/AIDS openly.

According to recent available posted on BBC, HIV infection may 
have increased by more than 100 percent among Nepalese women 
and by 200 percent among children in the past 18 months. This 
has also been substantiated by several NGO officials working to 
bring relief to the Nepalese women in Mumbai and Bangalore. 
Nearly 18% of the customers also happen to be migrant Nepalese 
workers in India close to the cities who visit the brothels on 
weekends. The Nepalese government´s National Center for AIDS/STI 
Control publishes figures regularly on the number of HIV/AIDS 
case occurring in Nepal. But these figures are considered diminutive 
based on the actual number infected, particularly those forced 
to return to Nepal from Mumbai, New Delhi and Kolkata after 
contracting HIV/AIDS. For instance, the Nepal Government released 
figures that nearly 2200 housewives were infected with HIV in 
2007, but the figure could be more as there is stigma and 
discrimination attached to revealing one´s HIV status in Nepalese 
society and this does not include the HIV/AIDS infected women 
who have been returned from Indian brothels. This is a serious 
problem that is also not reflected accurately in the various 
sentinel surveys on cross border sex trafficking between Nepal 
and India. The Nepalese government states that the number of 
children infected with HIV reached 428 from 138 in 2005, but 
the actual reality is, more than 2,500 known infections are 
recorded in various hospitals and clinics throughout Nepal in 
the same period.

The alarming fact is that among the Nepali women trafficked to 
India and forced into the sex trade, nearly 40 percent of them 
were HIV positive by the time they were repatriated, US researchers 
have verified. Human Rights Watch has published an explicit 
report outlining the plight of Nepalese women who have been 
trafficked to India and exploited for commercial sex work there 
and abroad. The main cause of this inhuman crime seems to be 
the impoverishment of Nepalese women which forces their parents 
to marry them off to middle agents or else to sell them off for 
the remaining families´ survival at an early age.

Another finding coming from a small study of 287 Nepalese women 
who found their way home after years of sex slavery in India's 
brothels, underscored the challenge facing public health authorities 
as they battled to contain India's HIV epidemic and prevent it 
from spreading throughout the region. Nearly 90% of them were 
infected with HIV, far more than the 40% figure guess estimated 
by various international media channels! According to Jay Silverman, 
Associate Professor of Society, Human Development, and Health 
at Harvard School of Public Health speaking to the BBC recently, 
"The high rates of HIV we have documented support concerns that 
sex trafficking may be a significant factor in both maintaining 
the HIV epidemic in India and in the expansion of this epidemic 
to its lower-prevalence neighbors."

India already has 2.3 million people living with HIV/AIDS, more 
than any other country in the world except South Africa and Nigeria, 
and is also a major hub for sex workers from across the region, 
such as Nepal and Bangladesh. Lacking formal employment, the tide 
of poor Nepalese women willing to provide these services seems 
to go unchecked.

Currently Nepal is rehabilitating itself after an 11 year old 
civil conflict that left nearly 13,600 people dead. However with 
the current national infection numbers hovering anywhere between 
80,000 to 120,000 more than 17,000 are expected to die each year 
throughout the coming decade due to HIV/AIDS related infections. 
Nepal earlier had traditionally very low rates of HIV/AIDS infection 
at less than 300 per 100,000 but now it cannot be sure it will 
remain the same for the rest of this decade. Many returning 
commercial sex workers sent back from various Indian cities in 
turn marry back into their villages, whether projected government 
figures are accurate or belie the truth. Many of the women are 
also giving birth to HIV infected children and continue engaging 
in commercial sex work in Kathmandu, Biratnagar, Janakpur, Pokhra, 
Nepalgunj, Bhairawa and Birtamod among major townships.

Both the World Bank and UNAIDS officials have warned that the 
cross-border sex trade presents a potential public health threat 
to Nepal, although there has been very little data or action to 
show what's happening on the ground. This all paints a highly 
disturbing picture of young women and girls being forcibly 
introduced to commercial sex work outside of Nepal with high rate 
of HIV infections, and many dying of AIDS.

It is important for donors and international non profit institutions 
working in Nepal and helping the Nepalese overcome the post-conflict 
rehabilitation efforts to understand the depth of this problem. 
An increase of HIV infections burdens not only society, but 
develops astronomic health expenditure in their care and support, 
something a poor country like Nepal cannot afford. Thus, trafficking 
of women and children to India and South Asia from Nepal has 
fuelled in a very dangerous HIV/AIDS prevalence scenario throughout 
the South Asian continent, where the women infected with HIV 
have to bear a sad plight of being left untended and uncared for.

USAID has pointed out that poverty is still the fundamental problem 
that underlies all trafficking in Nepal. Due to the prevailing 
poverty, most Nepalese girls are illiterate and easily lured by 
the tiny attractions of work, higher salaries, easy life, and 
promises of a foreign job. This is now beginning to take its toll 
on the Nepalese women´s lives eventually having to face the threat 
of carrying HIV infections in working in India. This creates 
a larger problem of HIV spreading more rapidly through Nepalese 
society, where efforts at HIV/AIDS impact mitigation show a lack 
of concrete national planning and realization on the need to do 
something more urgently.

In fact, both the governments of India and Nepal have strong 
legal guarantees against the trafficking of women and young girls 
and even consider it a heinous crime. Both governments have signed 
most of the international statutes that deal with halting global 
trafficking of human beings particularly the UN, ILO and other 
abiding international treaties. Both governments recognize that 
this form of trafficking is slavery and serfdom, in short, another 
form of forced labor as during the Second World War. International 
donors have even put conditions on Nepal, since it is a party 
to various international legal instruments to put in concrete 
efforts to halt the trafficking of Nepalese women and young 
children in promises of more aid and assistance, but it is the 
scrupulous middlemen and not government that is the main problem 
here. It is nevertheless a moral obligation of the Nepal Government 
to adopt all necessary and effective measures to stop these 
cross-border activities.

===============================================================

3. Lack of kits halt test at HIV centres
The Times of India,  February 16, 2008.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Mumbai/Lack_of_kits_halt_test_at_HIV_centres/articleshow/2786937.cms

MUMBAI: Less than two months after the World Bank exposed frauds 
in the implementation of the National AIDS Control Programme 
(NACP II), the project has run into fresh trouble. This time 
around, there is a major shortage of basic HIV-testing kits in 
the city’s walk-in HIV-testing centres.

The centres - called the Integrated Counselling and Testing 
Centres (ICTCs) - provide free testing and counselling for HIV, 
but the current shortage is resulting in people being turned 
away from the 75 centres in the city.

On Friday, TOI visited Sion Hospital’s walk-in centre, which wore 
a deserted look. Chembur resident Saiba Sheikh (name changed to 
protect identity) who was advised an HIV test as part of her 
gynaecology treatment, was told to return after eight days as 
the kits were out of stock. Calls made to several ICTCs in the 
suburbs and the rest of Maharashtra yielded the same response.

The shortage began a fortnight ago. Doctors at ICTCs in major 
civic hospitals such as KEM, Sion and Nair hospitals received 
a notice from the Mumbai District AIDS Control Organisation 
(MDACS) on February 1, saying that “there is an acute shortage 
of HIV-testing kits (rapid 1) which are supplied by National AIDS 
Control Organisation (NACO)’’. MDACS is the local body of NACO.

The notice further said that the centres should postpone collection 
of blood samples from people in view of the shortage.

"Such frequent non-availability of kits makes people lose faith 
in our centres. Besides, many of the people coming here are 
already under stress and it is unfair to make them wait," said 
a civic doctor. TOI had in its December 20 edition reported 
a temporary shortage, which arose in four centres in December 2007.

Nearly 600-900 patients approach an ICTC in major hospitals every 
month and persons should ideally get their reports within 48 hours.

MDACS chief Dr Nirupa Borges told TOI that her office had informed 
the NACO about the shortage of the first rapid test kits "in 
good time". Denying that all the centres had run out of stock, 
she said, "We are in constant touch with NACO officials who are 
in the process of providing kits. We received some stock from 
them just 2-3 days ago, which we have distributed to centres. 
We don’t have the power to procure these kits."

ICTC staffers, however, said MDACS had asked them to stop testing 
samples "till further notice" and also said that they haven’t 
received any further intimation since the February 1 notice.

Dr Sujatha Rao, who heads NACO, was out of the country and 
unavailable for comment. However, Vijay Kumar Reehl, under-secretary 
of NACO’s financial and procurement division said, "We had placed 
orders for the kits with two companies and the kits have now 
gone for inspection before we supply them to the field." He 
attributed the delay to "administrative procedures". Admitting 
that such a shortage should not arise, he said that the NACO 
had supplied 2 lakh interim kits all over the country, but the 
regular supply was likely to start by next week.

The current lapse comes close on the heels of a World Bank report 
released in December 2007, which revealed shocking findings of 
corrupt and fraudulent practices in the NACP-II. About test kits, 
the bank had questioned MDACS’s move to award contracts to 
a particular company, Monozyme, though the company’s bids were 
'non-compliant with the contract's specifications'. The WB review 
also exposed lapses in the selection of NGOs, following which 
NACO has recently taken action. 
===============================================================

4. Two years on, AIDS bill yet to get nod
MSN.com, February 16, 2008.
http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1246144

Moga: Thousands of people with HIV infection have lost jobs, 
been thrown out of homes and been refused treatment, waiting for 
government bureaucracy to clear the final draft of the HIV/AIDS 
Bill in Parliament.

''The Bill has been pending with the Centre for almost two years. 
We want the Bill to be tabled in the budget session of Parliament 
as promised by the Government.People living with HIV are being 
thrown out of jobs and denied treatment even in government medical 
colleges and these discriminatory issues cannot be addressed 
unless we have constitutional backing,'' says Naresh Yadav, 
vice-president of the Indian Network of People living with 
HIV/AIDS (INP+).

The Bill has provisions to protect HIV-positive women and children, 
who are more vulnerable to discrimination. According to the Bill, 
there should be no mandatory pre-marital testing but compulsory 
registration of marriage becomes a must to give women the right 
to live in their marital home. In the case of AIDS orphans, older 
siblings should be recognized as a guardian to keep the family 
intact.

Although India has a National AIDS Prevention and Control Policy, 
it does not have the status of law and so is not binding and 
enforceable in court. "If a private hospital refuses treating 
a person infected with HIV, they cannot seek legal recourse. 
The HIV/AIDS Bill aims to empower people to protect themselves 
and others from HIV/AIDS," says Denis Broun, country coordinator, 
UNAIDS.

Drafted by the Lawyers Collective to prevent and control HIV 
while protecting the rights of those infected with HIV, the final 
draft of the bill was submitted to the Union Ministry of Health 
in August.

===============================================================

5. INC gets 33 m Dollar world funding to fight AIDS
Deccan Herald, February 16, 2008.
http://www.deccanherald.com/DeccanHerald.com/Content/Feb162008/state2008021652679.asp?section=updatenews

The Indian Nursing Council (INC) will soon get USD 33 million 
Global Fund to impart focussed training to one lakh nurses in 
the treatment of HIV/AIDS affected patients in the country.

Mr T Dileep Kumar, President of INC and Nursing Advisor, GOI, 
Speaking to reporters after addressing a national conference on 
'Theory and Application in Nursing Practice, has said that  the 
Geneva based Global Fund to fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis 
(GFAMT) had come forward to fund the programme.

Fiftyfive nursing institutions had been identified for the purpose 
and one lakh nurses would be given specialised training in treating 
people with HIV/AIDS, apart from Malaria and TV.

"Counseling is very important in treating people with AIDS and 
we want to create a big contingent of nurses. We want these health 
workers to master the treatment of Anti Retroviral Therapy, which 
is commonly used to treat HIV patients. We plan to train at least 
15,000 nurses every year for the next five years under the 
programme," he said.

INC had begun work on launching the first National Institute of 
Nursing at Thambaram in Chennai specialising in treatment of 
HIV/AIDS. It would be a self sustaining institute which would 
reserve 25 per cent of seats to foreign students that would take 
care of costs of running the institute.

"South Africa, which has one of the highest incidence of AIDS 
in the world, is sending large number of students to the US for 
training in treatment of AIDS. We can invite students from foreign 
countries," he said.

Mr Kumar said INC had taken another initiative to set up a Centre 
of Excellence in Nursing in each state with a funding of Rs 20 
crore for every centre. Post graduate courses would be launched 
in each of these centres besides inviting thousands of staff 
nurses to undergo continuous education programmes, he said.

He agreed that many of the private nursing schools lacked proper 
infrastructure and the education standard remained sub standard.

"The State Nursing Councils should act as watch dogs and set 
stringent norms while according sanction to such schools. The INC 
is responsible for prescribing syllabus and norms for setting up 
clinical infrastructre facilities. The states should act tough 
against the erring schools," he said.

Former ISRO Chief and Rajya Sabha member K Kasturirangan said 
states like UP, Bihar, Orissa MP and Rajasthan faced acute shortage 
of nurses. There there were nine lakh registered nurses in various 
state nursing councils, only 3.6 lakh of them were actually active.

According to Health ministry estimates at the end of the 11th plan 
India would require 10.43 more nurses, a number that current 
infrastructure would be unable to meet, he added.

===============================================================

6. ‘Table AIDS Bill in budget session’
The Hindu, February 16, 2008.
http://www.hindu.com/2008/02/16/stories/2008021657651300.htm

NEW DELHI: The Indian Network for People Living with HIV/AIDS 
(PLHIV) has urged the government to table the long-pending HIV/AIDS 
Bill in the budget session of Parliament. It will hand over 
a letter containing 20,000 signatures in support of the proposed 
legislation to the Prime Minister’s Office next Monday.

At a press conference here on Friday, PLHIV activists and Lawyers’ 
Collective representatives said the proposed legislation would 
help address the issue of discrimination and protect the 
HIV-positive people’s rights. The final draft was prepared in 
August 2006 and since then the Bill had been lying with the Union 
Law Ministry.

Instances of discrimination against the HIV-positive people are 
commonly reported in different spheres of public service such 
as healthcare settings, discouraging them from accessing testing 
and treatment services. “Discrimination on the basis of HIV status 
is in direct contrast to the public health strategy for protecting 
and promoting the rights of those infected and affected by HIV,” 
Dennis Broun, country coordinator, UNAIDS, told reporters.

“The Bill is based on the rights perspective and aims at preventing 
and controlling the spread of the epidemic while protecting 
the rights of those infected and affected by the diseases,” said 
Anand Grover, director of the Lawyers Collective (HIV/AIDS unit). 

===============================================================

7. Breaking the silence
The Hindu, February 17, 2008.
http://www.hindu.com/mag/2008/02/17/stories/2008021750100400.htm

The Red Ribbon Express spreads the message of HIV awareness, 
prevention, countering stigma and life after HIV around the 
countryside.

The train is painted a cheerful sunshine yellow with a hint of 
blue and red. The tagline says “Uniting India Against AIDS. 
Zindagi Zindabad”. ‘Celebrate Life’ is an appropriate tagline 
for the train that communicates the compl exity of HIV: Everyone 
is vulnerable, yet it is preventable. HIV is not about morality; 
countering stigma against people living with HIV is integral to 
HIV prevention.

It is day 42 since the Red Ribbon Express was flagged off from 
New Delhi Railway Station on December 1, 2007. It has just entered 
Lucknow where it will halt for two days. It receives a jubilant 
welcome. Local NGOs have set up a small exhibition space around 
the platform. It is mid-morning and the queues are getting longer. 
Young men are in majority. The train is attractive, looks interesting, 
and curious crowds are growing.

The energy is youthful. Those in the driver’s seat — quite 
literally — are young people themselves. Mohan Singh Rana, CEO 
of the Red Ribbon Express who will be on board through its journey, 
is all of 27. Nehru Yuva Kendra’s volunteers play a critical role 
in outreach and mobilisation, as they travel in the train and 
at every halt go cycling into nearby villages spreading HIV 
awareness through nukkad nataks and skits.
Daunting scale

One year, 22 States, 70,000 km: The sheer scale of the project 
is overwhelming. During the course of its journey, the train will 
criss-cross the length and breadth of the country making 180 halts 
(in 180 districts), language changing 11 times over, before it 
returns to New Delhi on December 1, 2008.

Like a messenger of peace and goodwill, the train brings HIV 
information wherever it goes. From touch-screen to bicycle, it 
uses a synergy of technology and interpersonal communication 
to reach out. It has daunting challenges to meet. For one, HIV 
is a complex issue with many links — science, women’s vulnerability, 
reproductive health, sexuality, migration… The country is diverse 
with dialects changing every few 100 miles. The audience is 
varied — men, women, urban, rural, literates, neo-literates. 
And yet, there is something about the sheer spirit and energy 
that seems to bring everything together. According to CEO Rana, 
an average of 3,000-4,000 people visit the train each day. 
The response has been overwhelming.

Communication design

The first three coaches containing the exhibition use a communication 
style that is highly interactive packaged as infotainment. 
The touch-screen games, audiovisuals, interactive models make 
the exhibit extremely attractive to a young audience. There are 
music videos and PSAs (public service advertisements) featuring 
youth icons, actors and cricketers.

There is basic information: What is HIV, how it spreads, how to 
protect oneself. A map shows HIV prevalence across States and 
districts and national response to the epidemic. There is information 
on the National Rural Health Mission; HIV and reproductive health, 
why pregnant women should test for HIV.

UNICEF and ad agency JWT have ensured that communication is simple 
without being simplistic; no small challenge when it comes to 
an issue as complex as HIV. K. Beena, UNICEF, Lucknow, explains 
that as the train travels across the country, the visuals will 
remain the same while the language changes 11 times over. “That 
is why we ensured the visuals have faces representing different 
parts of the country,” she says.

There is no reference to high-risk groups, perhaps to consciously 
emphasise that everyone is vulnerable and not only certain 
population groups.

A coach designed as a 60-seater auditorium is meant for in-depth 
training for cohesive groups such as healthcare providers and 
elected representatives. Male/female doctors and counsellors are 
also on board. The live training sessions are designed for a cohesive 
group — doctors, district officials, teachers... The intention 
is that, as leaders, these people become more aware and can further 
ignite HIV awareness among the communities they work with. 
The live nature of the training helps dispel doubts.

Easily the most powerful part of the training is an experience 
shared by an HIV positive speaker who represents the State network 
of people living with HIV. In Lucknow, a confident 30-year-old 
Radha, President of the Faizabad Network, spoke of losing her 
son and husband to HIV, being thrown out of in-laws’ home and 
how the Network supported her. The survivor of many battles says 
she is committed towards HIV awareness and prevention, and 
dispelling fears in people’s minds because “I don’t want anyone 
else to go through what I had to go through.”

Radha’s share reminds me of Ashok Pillai, one of the pioneers 
among positive leadership in India, when he pointed out years 
ago “Unless people meet those with HIV how will they believe the 
problem is real?”

Audience response

Young people show an enthusiastic response; the tech-savvy nature 
of the exhibits is clearly working well. A group of young college 
girls said they were inspired and moved by Radha’s experience 
and sharing. As NSS volunteers, they have been part of HIV awareness 
programmes themselves.

There were students and researchers interested in the issue: 
A young man pursuing a diploma on HIV; another doing a research 
on opportunistic infections. A young woman from Dimapur working 
with an NGO in Gorakhpur was glad to know the language will change 
when the train reaches the North-east.

Women were remarkably few and far between. One woman said she 
came with a male member of the family. She’s fascinated and 
excited; this was all new to her. And yes, she says, women don’t 
come on their own; they hesitate.

Meanwhile, a train stops on the next track and young men, barely 
20, en route to Rae Bareilly cross the platform and wander in. 
Clearly, the audience is diverse — from those working on the 
issue and associated with it, to college students, to the wanderer. 
There’s something for all.

Spreading the word

The train is an interesting partnership between various ministries 
and departments such as National AIDS Control Organisation, 
the Railways, Youth Affairs. Various colleges, women’s groups 
and departments have been mobilised to encourage people to attend 
the exhibition.

While the train is stationed on the platform, a range of activities 
happen across the district. At every halt, NYK volunteers cycle 
to neighbouring villages in teams of 6-8, each team covering four 
villages a day doing nukkad nataks and skits. Where the train 
halts for more than a day, cyclists spend the night in the village. 
More than 43,000 villages will be covered through the year. 
In addition, there are two buses with a mobile exhibition covering 
the district’s periphery.

Rana says managing crowds at the platform sometimes becomes 
a challenge. The coaches have a limited capacity, viewing exhibits 
require time and attention. At some places such as Pratapgarh in 
Uttar Pradesh the response was so good he extended closing time 
from 5.30 pm to 8 pm. “But I cannot do it at every halt — we have 
to run 366 days,” he says. Perhaps platform activities need to 
be such that learning begins even as people begin to queue.

At Lucknow, there were very few women visitors. Most came as part 
of a group from a college; while some came accompanied by male 
relatives. The train may need to examine if the majority male 
crowd discourages women from coming by themselves. Perhaps 
a reserved viewing time for women may be required at some halts.

The train is presently travelling across the Hindi belt. Crossing 
Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, parts of Maharashtra and Chattisgarh, 
it is presently in Uttar Pradesh. From here, it heads to Uttaranchal, 
Jharkhand, and Bihar before reaching Guwahati on March 8, when 
the language will change for the first time to Assamese.

Twenty-two years into the epidemic in India, and people across 
quarters are finally talking about HIV. The silence is broken. 
It’s a big step.

===============================================================
 
8. More HIV-Infected Couples Tying The Knot In India
Bernama, February 17, 2008.
http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v3/news_world.php?id=314392

CHENNAI: HIV-positive sufferers who have been socially isolated 
because of the stigma attached to them, are not enduring their 
traumatic life in loneliness anymore.

They are beginning to lead a new life by marrying a partner with 
similar conditions. Such marriages are on the increase in high-risk 
districts like Namakkal, about 400km from here.

In South India, marriages among couples with HIV are becoming 
a trend and at least 300 of them have tied the knot in Andhra 
Pradesh, thanks to the effort by the Telugu Network of Positive 
People.

"These marriages help limit the spread of the disease, provide 
security to the affected females and moreover give companionship 
to the couple.

"The HIV affected people meet their partners in government hospitals 
that give antiretroviral therapy to extend longevity," said 
A.B. Antony Jennit, a psychologist from the Tamil Nadu Dr M.G.R. 
Medical University.

India has nearly 2.5 million HIV/Aids patients and about 70,000 
children suffer from the disease which destroys the human immune 
system.

Widespread discrimination against HIV infected people is still 
prevalent in India and as a result many live in isolation without 
access to decent healthcare.

Last year in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, a HIV-positive woman was 
forced to deliver her baby outside hospital as the doctors failed 
to attend to her and this triggered a strong protest from civil 
rights groups.

On condition of anonymity, a newly married HIV-infected woman 
told Bernama that she decided to marry for the sake of her children 
and to escape the social trauma.

"I lost my husband at a very young age because of HIV and he 
also transmitted it to me. Often, I was ostracised by my in-laws 
and life was miserable.

"So, I decided to marry again and it is the best option for me 
and my children," she the woman whose deceased husband worked 
as a truck driver in Namakkal.

Andhra Pradesh has nearly 500,000 HIV infected people, mostly 
villagers in the coastal areas.

In Namakkal, 20 percent of its 53,000 population have been 
affected by the virus and the prevalence of HIV among pregnant 
women is about three percent in the district where men mostly 
eked out as truck drivers.

===============================================================

9. Free medicines, transport is all they want for battle against HIV
Express India, February 18, 2008.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Free-medicines-transport-is-all-they-want-for-battle-against-HIV/274249/

Chandigarh: Members of the People living with HIV/AIDS, a centre 
for the AIDS infected people that is being managed by the State 
AIDS Control Society, Chandigarh, are fighting a lone battle for 
medical and other facilities that are quite expensive for the 
families enrolled with the centre.

The centre was started on September 2, 2005, and has so far, 
around 300 odd families enrolled with it. The centre has been 
working towards providing relief to the AIDS infected people in 
the form of providing free medication, spreading awareness and 
safeguarding their social as well as legal rights.

Although the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) provides 
free medicines to the affected, affording baseline test that 
includes blood count test, haemoglobin test, continues to be 
a problem for the patients.

Besides this, patients demand provision of free transportation 
service; for they are unable to bear heavy transportation cost 
and thus avoid the treatments.

The Viral Detect Test that the patients need to undergo is also 
quite expensive and is not funded by the NACO because it provides 
free medicines only under the Anti-Retro Viral Therapy (ART).

Moreover, NACO provides medicines on the basis of blood count. 
In some cases the HIV positive patients do not have a low blood 
count and therefore are not considered for a free treatment.

“It is the shortage of funds that hampers the work of this society. 
Although a PIL demanding facilities such as baseline tests and 
transportation has been filed but it is still pending,” said 
Pooja Thakur, the president of Chandigarh Network of People Living 
with HIV AIDS.

Veena Sharma of Human Rights Law Network said that another petition 
called as PUCL vs Union of India was pending with the Supreme Court, 
which demands the HIV infected people must be issued Below Poverty 
Line (BPL) cards to avail free medication.

The patients also demand setting up of separate institutions to 
rehabilitate the affected women and children.

“The HIV affected people need special care that cannot be provided 
at Bal Sudhar Kendra’s or Naari Niketans, where they are sent,” 
said Sharma.

When contacted, director of the State AIDS Control Society 
Dr Vanita Gupta said that there was no dearth of funds and the 
affected people were being provided the required aid free of cost. 
On baseline tests, she added that patients have to bear the costs 
and only BPL families are exempted from paying for these tests.

Commenting on the provision of free transport facility, she said 
that since relief centres were already functioning in places like 
Simla, Amritsar , Rohtak and Patiala, therefore, there was no 
need to deport patients to the Chandigarh centre.

“Why should Chandigarh bear the economic burden of these patients? 
Since we have centres all over India, the patients can avail 
the relief in these centres,” said Gupta.

Commenting on the provision of free medicines for second line 
treatment, Dr Gupta said, “Very few people have undergone this 
process so far, but still on case to case basis we try to provide 
as much relief as we can.” 

===============================================================

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in the above articles
are those of the respective newspapers, not those of
SAATHII.