A bill to battle stigma

“The process of preparing a law on HIV/AIDS was initiated six years ago when an advisory working group chaired by the National Aids Control Organisation (NACO) invited the Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit to draft the law,” said Kalpana Gaikwad, advocacy officer with Lawyers Collective in Mumbai.

The Bill was submitted to the government in 2005 and has special provisions for women, children and other vulnerable groups. NACO and the Health Ministry have thoroughly studied the Bill and other ministries have given their comments on it. The Bill was also circulated to State AIDS Control Societies and state governments for their comments. It was then placed before the Law Ministry for consideration-where it has been lying since 2006, says Pankaj Bedi, an activist with the Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR).

Among those who are desperately waiting for the Bill is Ujwala Kadam from Baramati. Ujwala, who leads the Soudamini network of positive women, was thrown out of her house due to her HIV status. “What is appaling is that the police are unwilling to register my complaint and now I am sending the Baramati police station a legal notice for non cooperation,” says Kadam.

While the Bill may not be a single point solution, Dr Vinay Kulkarni, an HIV consultant, says it will make a difference. “The anti-dowry law was not a solution—we still have cases—but yes, people did take notice. We hope a similar situation prevails and the Bill does make a difference.

What the much awaited Bill needs to do is to monitor and evaluate stigma. The World Bank’s committee on South Asia Region Development Marketplace met on May 14 in Mumbai and focused on the fears and misconceptions surrounding HIV transmission. They tried to understand the beliefs that underlie the stigma and recommended the need to start at ‘home’.

Dr Neeta Mawar, a scientist at NARI, feels the stigma persists because of the lack of awareness about sex education. Hans Billimoria, an HIV/AIDS activist, admits the fear of casual transmission is real and “we have to address the reasons for this stigma when people start asking if HIV spreads through mosquito bites or saliva”, he says.

According to David Celentano, Professor of Epidemiology at Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, though India’s HIV rates have been cut down from 5.7 million to 2.5 million in 2007, the burden faced in providing national HIV prevention and care remains massive.

According to NACO, Maharashtra has an estimated 7.47 lakh people living with HIV. Dr Ashok Mehta, Joint Director, MSACS, strongly advocates the need for community involvement to deal with the problem.