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Journalism of Courage
Like millions of couples across India, Nayan and Sushma got married six months ago through matrimonial advertisements placed by their families in Ahmedabad’s leading newspapers.
But what made this match different were the ads—they clearly mentioned that both were HIV carriers.
Breaking all mental barriers, an increasing number of HIV-positive men and women in Gujarat are coming out in the open on their health status to find the right partner—not just in newspapers but also on websites.
‘‘I was having a hard time taking care of my five-year-old daughter after I lost my first husband due to AIDS three years ago,’’ says Sushma, who works as a pre-primary school teacher.
‘‘We are being truthful. We only marry people of the same status. By seeing the ads, we have better chances of finding a better match,’’ says Nayan, an auto mechanic.
Says Hitesh, a 32-year-old autorickshaw driver, who recently decided to place a matrimonial ad in a newspaper: ‘‘I have been a carrier for almost three years now. Earlier I was disappointed, but now I am keen on getting married and living a normal life.’’
Says Dr D M Saxena, Additional Project Director of Gujarat State AIDS Control Society: ‘‘It’s a welcome change which has come in the last few years. Gradually, people have understood the difference between a carrier and a full-blown patient and HIV-positive people are accepted in a much better way.’’
Others, like this 29-year-old woman from a upper middle class household, don’t mind advertising their HIV status but refrain from revealing their identity till the very end.
‘‘Being HIV-positive is not as much a taboo as it was earlier. But for safety reasons, we do not directly give away our names or addresses but put the contact numbers of some close relative,’’ she said, when contacted through a number given in a matrimonial ad on a website. Says H Raj, who runs Face to Face, a matrimonial service in the city’s Navrangpura area: ‘‘People are definitely more open and bolder now. I came across three HIV carriers recently—from Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat—who readily agreed to place ads in local dailies and did not think twice about mentioning their health status.’’
One of the three, Raj says, is happily married today.
Over 5,400 AIDS cases have been recorded in Gujarat since the first one in 1986—an estimated 0.3 per cent of the 2.5 crore adults in the state are HIV-positive.
While Gujarat was marked for middle-level prevalence in 1994, along with Tamil Nadu and Nagaland, it has been able to keep a check on its AIDS numbers, say officials.
Says Dr Laxman Malodia, of the AIDS Control Society of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC): ‘‘It was not easy but it was never as difficult as in other states. Patients here have been more co-operative and understanding. However, placing matrimonial ads in newspapers is quite appreciable and something that one does not come across every day.’’
