The Hindu : New Delhi News : Photo exhibition on AIDS inaugurated

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Photo exhibition on AIDS inaugurated

Staff Reporter

“An attempt to humanise the epidemic and remind us that we can play a role in reducing stigma”

Photo: Sandeep Saxena

For a noble cause: Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss inaugurating the photo exhibition on AIDS awareness at Rajiv Chowk Metro station in the Capital on Friday.

NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Anbumani Ramadoss inaugurated a photo exhibition at the Rajiv Chowk Metro station on Friday. On for the next 15 days, the exhibition has been organised by Avahan, the India AIDS Initiative of Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Dr. Ramadoss said: “India’s dedicated focus on HIV prevention is fetching dividends. We are seeing the beginning of the stabilisation of the HIV epidemic in India. Here in India, we know that stigma is the single biggest barrier to HIV prevention. This stigma is directed at sex workers, men who have sex with men, injection drug users, truckers and the other vulnerable groups most closely associated with India’s concentrated HIV epidemic. The manifestation of stigma includes personal and institutional violence, discrimination, apathy and indifference, and outright denial.”

The Minister added that his Ministry was lobbying with agencies for removal of Section 377 of Indian Penal Code as it was impeding the Government’s AIDS control measures. He said that India had a population group of 2.3 million which fall in the category of males having sex with males. About 10 per cent of this population was highly vulnerable. In order to intervene in this crucial segment, access is needed and Section 377 makes it difficult. If the Section goes it will help a great deal in de-stigmatisation and improve access to the target group.

The photographs exhibited are a part of a book titled “AIDS Sutra” which is a ground-breaking collection of 16 real life stories by some of India’s most well-known writers. The anthology reads like a news magazine, whereby each author travelled to a specified location in India to see one aspect of the Indian epidemic and then reported on it. The photographs have been shot by well-known photographer Prashant Panjiar and capture the groups “most at risk” from HIV and those especially vulnerable to HIV/AIDS – sex workers and their clients and injecting drug users.

The 16 authors who have contributed to the book include Salman Rushdie, Kiran Desai, Vikram Seth, William Dalrymple, Shobha De, Amit Chaudhuri, Siddhartha Deb, Nikita Lalwani, Mukul Kesavan, Sonia Faleiro, Jaspreet Singh, Nalini Jones, Siddharth Dhanvant Shangvi, C.S. Lakshmi, Aman Sethi, and Sunil Ganguly. Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen has written the foreword. Royalties from the book will go toward educational opportunities for AIDS affected children in India.

Avahan country director Ashok Alexander said: “Stigma, denial and apathy are three reinforcing elements that are keeping HIV in India in the dark. It is stigma that prevents people from openly discussing the facts around HIV, and keeps them from participating in prevention or treatment programmes. The denial and apathy creates the false sense that India’s morality will protect it from AIDS. Together, they lead to discrimination against HIV-affected in hospitals, against children in schools.”

He added that this exhibition was an attempt to humanise the epidemic and remind us that we all can play a role in reducing stigma and discrimination.

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