AIDS among women is taboo in media

An interaction on "Women and HIV/AIDS: Need for Media Advocacy", organised by the Australian High Commission brought the NGOs and representatives of the media together to take stock of the kind of coverage that HIV/AIDS receives in the country.

"We need to break the culture of silence that engulfs women suffering from HIV/AIDS", said Anjali Gopalan of the NAZ Foundation, a voluntary organisation working with AIDS sufferers.

Women’s lack of access to health care, the fact that they have no "bargaining power" in relationships, and the stigma and discrimination they face at the hands of family and strangers alike once they contract HIV infection are issues that get shortshrift in the media.

Participants were also critical of the "targetted approach" adopted by the Union Health Ministry’s National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) saying this further increased and highlighted the vulnerability of women by increasing their stigmatisation.

HIV prevention methods targetting women have been implicitly flawed as they are based on conditions that are entirely out of women’s control. Neither the strategy advocated by government of decreasing the number of sexual partners or monogamy nor condom use, were both issues that could not be negotiated by women.

Greater and more efficacious use of radio and television especially with low literacy levels, promoting facts and information on HIV/AIDS written in simple language which do not feed into a fear psychosis, stories describing the daily trials and travails of HIV/AIDS patients and how they overcome these odds.