NEW DELHI, July 14: Chochi, better known as the `AIDS village', under Jhajhar tehsil in Rohtak district of Haryana, where Ranbir Singh, a truck diver died of the virus, is facing serious social alienation and humiliation. It is not just the future of Ranbir's three daughters that is in jeopardy but that of the entire population of 4,500.The large scale media coverage have turned the life of the people more miserable. Worst is the condition of Munge Ram, father of the deceased. Complaining about the social alienation of his family, he said: ``My son has three daughters. How can I marry them off? I don't know whether any one will marry them. I am an old man. I don't know what to do?''Meanwhile, a five-member Joint Action Council of Kannur, comprising Jeemon Jacob, Ashok Sharma, Narendra Tanwar, Ved Pakash Vidrohi and Purushottaman Mulloili, after visiting the village, sent a memorandum to the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Renuka Choudhary seeking immediate setting up of a high level committee consisting experts of the Indian Council of Medical Research to investigate the various aspects of Ranbir's death the medical examination of the deceased, the unethical behaviour on the part of the doctors in the hospital and disclosure of the blood status in utter disregard of the direction of anonymity.The widespread publicity has damaged the social fabric of Chochi village, the memorandum alleged and said the surrounding villages have also isolated Chochi in fear of an epidemic.The incidence in Chochi village was not an isolated case, the memorandum said and alleged that the kind of callous attitude which created this scenario was happening all over the country. However, Chochi was singularly unfortunate to have been exposed so heavily that the villagers were now looked down upon.``This has made it almost impossible for the villagers to escape from the stigma of living in an `AIDS village'. The government agencies will need to develop capacity and skill among the medical and other district authorities which would enable them to prevent such a disaster in the future,'' the memorandum said.According to the head of the Microbiology Department, who also heads the Regional Surveillance Centre, Haryana, ``We have not issued any HIV status report to any body except the clinical observation of the physician who was handling the case. The Rohtak Medical College does not have a western blot testing facility which could determine the HIV positive status.''Similarly, Dr D R Gaur, head of the Community Medicine says, ``No proper guideline of materials on training to face the situation like the one in Chochi was given. We only have clinical information which too is confusing when we deal with the people. The social aspect is missing in the entire campaign and I am confused about how to reach to the people''.
