Southern States - Kerala   

AIDS/HIV stigma: CM convenes meet today

By M. Dinesh Varma

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM APRIL 22. The Government is having a serious rethink at the effectiveness of the AIDS/HIV awareness programmes being launched in the State, which is housing an estimated 70,000 HIV-infected individuals, according to current estimates.

Partly contributing to this urgency on the part of the Government to reassess AIDS/HIV awareness programmes and revise strategies to remove the stigma has been the incident involving siblings who were denied their fundamental rights because of their HIV status.

The pair, Bency (7) and her brother Benson (5), along with their grandparent and a Kollam-based NGO, had staged a dharna in front of the Secretariat recently to attract Government attention to their plight.

Quite shockingly for the Government, and what eventually led to a perpetuation of trauma for the siblings, even official instructions to get the children, admitted to a school in their neighbourhood in Kollam town, met with stubborn resistance from the parents of other children in the same institution.

In fact, the Chief Minister, A. K. Antony, has convened a high-level meeting on Wednesday to discuss various aspects of the issue.

As many as 72 NGOs, including religious leaders of various communities, are expected to attend the meet, which would primarily focus on ways to dispel the social stigma that hounds victims of HIV/AIDS, sources said.

Though this has not been the first instance that HIV/AIDS awareness was not being reflected in social attitudes towards such victims among a literate, but, health-conscious population, the virtual ostracism that the siblings had to undergo, has served to focus the attention of the authorities on the stigma that continues to hound HIV/AIDS victims.

Such instances have also raised serious doubts over whether messages propagated constantly as part of the information, education and communication (IEC) programmes of the Kerala State AIDS Control Society have indeed percolated to the grassroot-level perceptions about HIV/AIDS and its victims.

The State is currently mid-way into the second phase of implementing the National AIDS Control Programme (1999-2004). According to sources, the attempt of the meeting convened by the Chief Minister would be to try to increasingly involve community participation to shape a positive response to HIV/AIDS victims.

The official imperative also reflects the urgent need to step up the HIV/AIDS awareness campaign in a State like Kerala, where awareness has not been found to match social attitudes towards unfortunate victims of the deadly disease.

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