Kerala   

A campaigner for the marginalised

`Campaigns among sex workers have brought down HIV prevalence among this group.'

Tito Thomas

He talks to R. Madhavan Nair on the campaigns he has launched among sex workers and drug addicts.

Tito Thomas had earlier led a campaign for sex workers' rights, and has more recently, launched a campaign to wean away drug users from the deadly habit.

Organising a maligned and marginalised section like sex workers into a group was not everyone's idea of social service, though it had been done in a few places in other States and in a few foreign countries. After bringing them under a union in Kozhikode, he launched a campaign for protection of their right to live with dignity.

Such initiatives by Mr. Thomas and a few others in other places in the State brought sex workers' problems into the limelight and made it a human rights issue.

Mr. Thomas is now leading a campaign to give needles to drug addicts to dissuade them from using old needles used by other drug users. Mr. Thomas, director of the Kozhikode-based Centre for Social Research and Development (CSRD), says that his campaign among drug users is effective in preventing the spread of blood-borne infections, particularly HIV.

"We do not distribute needles to encourage drug users to go on using drugs, as some have alleged. What we are conducting is a Needle Syringe Exchange Programme (NSEP) to prevent the spread of HIV and other infections which happen when the same needle is used by many users."

"Drug users, always hard up for money, rub their old blunt needles on rock to sharpen it when it is time for them to take a shot of the drug, but finally they borrow needles that are being used by their friends. It often causes the spread of the virus. We at the CSRD exchange the old ones for new so that many would not have to use the same needle."

"Through this, we build friendship with them and counsel them to go for de-addiction. Through continuous counselling we could succeed in sending over 150 addicts in Kozhikode to de-addiction centres. This programme of the State Government is financially supported by the AIDS Control Society."

Mr. Thomas, a lawyer by training, points out that what the CSRD is doing is of considerable social value. The CSRD also works with the student community to prevent them from falling prey to drugs.

Mr. Thomas believes HIV is fast spreading among the Injection Drug Users (IDUs) in Kozhikode and that the prevalence has doubled to 5.2 per cent in just one year. "It is now under control after CSRD's intervention," he says.

It is estimated that there are nearly 8,000 Injecting Drug Users (IDUs) in Kerala and about 20 per cent of them are in Kozhikode. The CSRD is the only agency in the State providing the NSEP. Mr. Thomas believes more agencies should launch the NSEP among drug users in other parts of Kerala.

The CSRD was the first NGO in Kerala which started working with sex workers. It received a lot of brickbats for providing sex workers with condoms and giving them training in safe sex practices.

"But now, 12 years down the lane, it has become an accepted programme all over Kerala and the result is remarkable," he says. He also believes campaigns among sex workers have brought down HIV prevalence among this group.

When away from home, he works as a human rights lawyer with the United Nations in its refugee section. His first stint was with Vietnamese refugees.

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