Southern States - Andhra Pradesh-Hyderabad   

Court comes to her rescue

By M.L. Melly Maitreyi

HYDERABAD SEPT. 6. Hope is not lost for this 28-year-old, HIV positive woman. She lost her husband a few years ago and her six-year-old son five months ago, to the dreaded Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).

Yet, with failing health, she is determined to lead her life productively and with dignity. She had no clue on how, but a recent High Court order gave her the optimism.

The frail-looking Kamala (name changed) had a smile on her face when The Hindu met her two days after the High Court issued the order directing the State to provide her treatment and nourishment to fight AIDS. She now hopes to lead a quality life as long as possible, rather than die a million deaths everyday, amid an uncaring society, indifferent in-laws and parents and siblings.

She was healthy and happy when she got married to a car driver in 1995. He was a lorry driver earlier and away from home for long spells, a fact that was kept secret from Kamala's family. Soon, she developed health complaints and saw her husband too frequently taking ill.

Amid her bouts of illness, a son was born in 1996. When she forcibly took her husband to the Osmania General Hospital, doctors confirmed her worst fears. He was HIV positive. That was not all. Tests revealed that she and her son too were afflicted.

Her woes began when her in-laws refused to accept the truth and blamed her instead, for their son's failing health and approached sorcerers to rid their son of `evil forces'. But when her husband's condition became alarming after a skin infection, Kamala forcibly took him to the Gandhi Hospital where he died in 1998. She had to bear the brunt of her in-laws' wrath for defying them. They threw her out of the house and she had to return to her parents with her son.

With no help from her in-laws, it was tough to meet the medical expenses. Her father who had already spent quite a sum on their treatment had retired and had his own family burden. Determined as she was to keep her son alive, Kamala would not neglect even a minor illness and promptly took him to doctors who were sympathetic to her plight. "My son was the sole reason for my existence and I was determined to save him'', she recalls with tears. She approached the Andhra Mahila Sabha Legal Aid Centre and subsequently the State Legal Services Authority to help her get her share of property (a piece of land) from her in-laws for continuing her son's treatment.

Her in-laws refused to relent and her family preferred her to accept her fate and not attract the relatives' attention and the social stigma. Yet, she continued her fight with the help of the legal aid centre but suffered a major blow when she lost her son in April.

Though the High Court order came a bit late for her to save her son, she is determined to carry on with the treatment assured to her now at the Freedom Foundation Society and help from the A.P. State AIDS Control Society.

She dreams of adopting an orphan and eking out a living with her vocational skills even as her relatives literally wait for her death!

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