Tamil Nadu - Chennai   

10 more legal aid clinics planned for AIDS victims

CHENNAI: Ten more legal aid clinics for people living with HIV/AIDS will be set up in as many districts in Tamil Nadu, with the AIDS Prevention and Control Project promising financial assistance, S. Vijayakumar, project director and member secretary, Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society (TANSACS), said.

Speaking at the inaugural function of the training programme for lawyers on HIV/AIDS and the issues and rights of people living with HIV/AIDS, organised by the Tamil Nadu State Legal Services Authority (TNSLSA), the United Nations Development Programme and the TANSACS, Dr. Vijayakumar said Legal Aid Clinics were operating in five districts. The first was inaugurated by the former Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, A.P. Shah, at Namakkal and the others came up at Dindigul, Cuddalore, Madurai and Tirunelveli.

All of them functioned with lawyers provided by the TNSLSA, one social worker and two outreach workers, and with the support of a positive persons’ network. Petitions that had been received could be categorised as legal (involving property and financial disputes and stigma and discrimination) and non-legal (requests for widow pension, patta, and jobs). In five districts, 190 legal and 840 non-legal petitions had been received, and 68 legal cases and 229 non-legal petitions have been cleared. Dr. Vijayakumar said the rest would be settled before the end of March.

Acting Chief Justice S.J. Mukhopadhaya said there were many direct and indirect links between human rights violations and the HIV epidemic. People living with HIV/AIDS were denied access to care and treatment and discriminated at workplace, sometimes fired from their jobs. “Practically, we allow them to die,” he said. They must be treated equally by society, and they should not be denied their fundamental rights.

Making suggestions to reduce stigma, he said it would be wise to start community-based HIV care programmes and adopt anti-discriminatory measures by focussing on institutions such as the workplace, hospitals and schools to prevent discrimination.

P.K. Misra, judge, Madras High Court, called for scientific, economical, sociological and legal intervention to help such people. Not only those infected, but the community must be made aware of their legal rights.

M. Jaichandren, judge, Madras High Court, said the legal aid clinics had received tremendous response from the beneficiaries.

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