Other States - Rajasthan   

HIV-positive women seek a better deal

JAIPUR: HIV-positive women have sought job cards under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA) and subsidized grain through the Public Distribution System and Antyodaya Anna Yogna. The Government has to ensure the right to food and work of the afflicted persons, most of whom are widows with young children, they have said.

A two-day meeting of HIV-positive women organised here by the Positive Women’s Network, PUCL (Rajasthan), Lawyers’ Collective and Office of Commissioners to the Supreme Court on Right to Food found most of the affected women in heavy debt due to treatment costs and loss of livelihood. Many of them are facing the double burden of widowhood and positive status but get very little support in terms of employment opportunities and pension.

More than 70 HIV-positive women from Barmer, Jhunjhunu, Ajmer, Jaipur, Karauli, Dholpur, Jalore, Churu and Hanumangarh districts took part in the meeting.

“The situation in Rajasthan is more delicate as 30 per cent of the total affected persons are women against 26 at the national level,” observed Sudhir Verma, Director of the Social Policy Research Institute. “Another aspect about the State is that the cases are reported more from the rural districts than the urban centres,” he noted.

“Very few of HIV-positive women get pension. Although they are given drugs for free, they need to spend a lot of money on transport to collect them,” observed Sushila of PWN. Rajasthan has drug centres only in Jaipur and Jodhpur and there is a need to locate one centre in each of the districts, she pointed out.

In a declaration titled “Jaipur Declaration by Positive Women”, the groups sought at least 35 kg of wheat at Rs.2 per kg every month under the Antyodaya Anna Yogna to HIV-positive member households. The widows should be given separate AAY cards even if they stayed with an extended family. The State Government on its part could put in another 35 kg at Rs.2 per kg to double the entitlement, it said.

The declaration demanded pension for all HIV-positive widows without any eligibility restrictions.

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HIV-positive women seek a better deal

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