Karnataka   

They’re positively discriminated against

— Photo: AP

No solace: Discrimination is the inevitable companion of an HIV-positive status.

BANGALORE: Fourteen-year-old Jaya tested positive for the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), contracted from her 32-year-old husband.

Turned away by him and her in-laws, she has lived for four years in a shelter for children in Bangalore.

Her grandmother, her sole guardian, is too old to take care of her.

When she visited her husband who was undergoing treatment in Bangalore recently, he asked her not to visit him any more because “he knew that she wanted his property.”

When Sunitha’s siblings realised she had been turned away from her husband’s home because she had contracted HIV, they cast her out and refused to take her back home.

The shock left Sunitha mentally disturbed.

However, with support from parents and continuous medication, the 25-year-old has managed to bring her life on track and works as a care-giver at a children’s home.

“My parents used to wash mine and my husband’s clothes in Dettol,” says Manjula of Arunodaya — Bangalore Network of Positive People, a community-based organisation run by HIV-positive people in the city

“ They never allowed us to touch children. They never came home or had food with us when they came to know both of us had Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS),” she adds

After having joined the network and gained the confidence to assert herself, she has been able to change their mindset, she says.

Even as World AIDS Day, observed on December 1, provides for some introspection on how effective the money spent on spreading awareness about HIV/AIDS has been, it does seem that the perception that AIDS is a “shameful” disease and those suffering from it best be “avoided” continues to make the journey formidable for people living with HIV/AIDS.

The first wave of discrimination that someone infected with HIV faces is from the family.

And patients go out of their way to conceal the fact from them.

“Even though the Government has opened up Voluntary Counselling and Testing Centres across the State and provides Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) in its hospitals, people still travel to places away from home to get themselves checked or treated for HIV/AIDS. Bangalore is most frequented because as a big city it provides anonymity,” says Saroja Putran, president of Arunodaya.

Ironically, the worst form of discrimination is in the hospitals and nursing homes.

“Discrimination is most evident in healthcare set-ups as people have to reveal their status here.

There are many instances where people are thrown out of maternity homes, often citing the reason that the case is complicated and the patient needs to be taken to Victoria Hospital,” says Christie Abraham, team leader, HIV and AIDS, at Action Aid. Apathy of the duty-bound.

Consequences of the State Government’s apathy seem by far the biggest stumbling block for people with HIV/AIDS.

“The ART unit at Bowring Hospital receives more than 300 people every day from across the State.

People come late in the night, register themselves and wait outside through the night for their turn in the morning. There is not even a waiting room for them,” says Krishna Murthy of Arunodaya.

With ART resulting in many side effects, counselling about medicines and how to deal with the side effects are crucial.

“It would make much difference if a peer counsellor, someone who also has also gone through the processes, talks to people undergoing the therapy,” says Saroja.

“There are two posts vacant for counsellor at the ART unit in Bowring Hospital and we have said that we will provide the peer counsellors.

But officials at Karnataka State AIDS Prevention Society say that they need someone with a Masters in Social Work for the post,” she adds.

Eating nutritious food is an important factor when undergoing ART.

“But the Government has not done anything about providing them with Antyodaya ration cards.

So not only do people have to struggle in coping with the emotional and physical consequences of HIV/AIDS, they also have to worry about where their next meal comes from,” says Mr. Krishna Murthy.

While there are many non-government organisations working in different geographical limits and with various communities, their reach, for obvious reasons, is limited. Ms. Christie says: “The Government has not made public district-wise data on HIV-AIDS prevalence, has not unveiled its plans for phase three of the National AIDS Control Programme (launched nationwide in July) and has not even made known the manner in which it has spent the money allocated to it for HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.”

Small wonder then that Karnataka continues to occupy an unenviable position of being one of the six States with a high prevalence of HIV/AIDS.

(Some names have been changed to protect identity.)

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