NGO shows how not to raise AIDS awareness

Though Sahyog argues it is guilty of just plain-speaking and has quoted people verbatim to make the report authentic, the locals believe it’s a conspiracy to spoil the image of Uttarakhand for getting foreign funds. They point out the report talks of sexual relations between father and daughter and brother and sister. The report, they allege, describes the sexual behaviour of both men and women as beastly. In fact, they complain, the language is comparable to any cheap paperback sold on the streets.

The founder of the NGO, Abhijeet Das, is an MBBS trained in public health and has conducted several workshops for training other doctors on reproductive health. Articulate and well-travelled, he has presented several papers abroad. His wife, Jashodhara, is a post-graduate in comparative literature. They were both fellows of the McArthur Foundation.

With such credentials, where did the two go wrong? What they describe as pure research material on sexual behaviour — used in order to make a strong impact on people who matter, perhaps those who fund them — has offended the people. “We were victims of the small-town mentality. In any case, the material was meant for a select audience, that of NGOs and policy-makers and not the general public,” says Das.

But Shamsher Singh Bisht, a social activist, who first raised the alarm, indicts them strongly. “They are outsiders and in the eight years that they have been here, they have not been able to catch the pulse of the society or come close enough to the people to be accountable to them,” he says.

While the NGO has behaved somewhat irresponsibly, the people’s behaviour has been irrational and without any restraint.

After the controversy broke out, the report was selectively photocopied and distributed in remote corners of the region. With the local press joining the campaign, wild accusations are now being hurled at the NGO. “They make blue films; they are raking in foreign funds in crores; and they take women into the jungles, god knows what they do,” are some samples.

The couple were handcuffed and paraded from the local court to the jail, a distance of one kilometre. They have failed to apply for bail because the lawyers in the area have decided against representing them.

But what’s worst is that the campaign against AIDS and other similar programmes have received a setback. Each such project is now suspect. A university programme running with government assistance has been asked to come clean on its finances and the work done. “I do not believe in showing the details of our programme to every Tom, Dick and Harry who comes here. Our programme is very different from what Sahyog used to do. I feel that the kind of things which the report talks about is false. Our interactive sessions do not reflect the theory spelt out in the report,” says S D Bhat, who is the head of the Department of Zoology and runs a programme `Becoming a Responsible Youth’. He has got a grant of Rs 60 lakh from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

But Sahyog is what everyone is talking about now. The people from the sample area of five villages in the Dhauladevi block of Jageshwar do not mince words. “This is not the first time they have done something so shameful. An inquiry had been conducted by the SDM in 1998. They have never mingled with the public but managed to build a group of 20-30 women who would participate in their programmes,” said Harish Bhat, gram pradhan of Jageshwar. There was a campaign to oust them from here in 1998 and “because of their good relations with top officials” those who participated in the campaign had false charges made against them.

Devki Nandan Bhat, who was once employed with Sahyog, recalls that a person from Sahyog had come to organise a group discussion thrice. “These sessions were about the knowledge of AIDS and were conducted in a village called Kunja. Our conservative society would not discuss these things with outsiders,” says Bhat. He feels they did not go to the five villages, as claimed in the report.

The locals are seething. “They started their work here eight years back with the literacy project. After that they have failed to do anything worthwhile for the people of Uttarakhand. They have two gobar gas projects and three smokeless chullahs to show on the main road,” says Ram Chander, block pramukh.

Everybody in the region is vying to issue statements against them — the vyapaar mandal, doctors, Uttarakhand Sangharsh Samiti, women’s groups and even other NGOs. Almora and Ranikhet remained closed for two days as a mark of protest. A meeting is also being organised in Delhi on May 15. Eleven people from Sahyog were arrested following a gherao by 250 people inJageshwar and Almora. Five are still at the Almora jail.

Even the doctors quoted in the report have denied their statements fearing they would be ostracised. “No doctor had been consulted on the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases. The information given in the report is a figment of their imagination and all precautions are taken in the hospital as far as blood transfusion is concerned,” said a statement issued by prominent doctors of the area.

Jailed NGO couple defends report
Abhijeet and Jashodhara, who run Sahyog, speak out:

* On use of obscene language: On hindsight, it was wrong. We merelywanted to add to the authenticity of the report by quoting directly. Maybe in Hindi it sounds obscene.

* On their arrest: We were taken aback. This report was released in September and suddenly now the people have reacted. The charges are baselessas it is the people who are disturbing local peace rather than us.

* On whether the facts in the report are true: 33.5 million HIV positive people in India and 95 per cent of the transmission through sex are UN figures.

* On their finances: We have got aid from Oxfam, McArthur Foundation,Action Aid, Danida, and these are unconditional grants. We set our ownagenda and publish our balance sheets in our annual report. Only Rs60,000 has been spent in preparing 500 copies.

* On their future: This will give us a chance to quit the project and hand it over to a local leadership.