AIDS and India

[Guest guest]

"Nearly four million Indians are estimated to have HIV--the second

highest number in the world behind only South Africa. Health

officials predict that China and India, the world's two most populous

nations, will soon lead the world in numbers of HIV cases."

 

Indian newspapers have been publishing editorials this week in

response to Microsoft CEO Bill Gates recent donation of US$100

million dollars to help fight AIDS in that country. Apparently the

editors are more enlightened about the health problem than the Indian

government itself.

 

Whether the Indian government will be able to spend the money

effectively remains to be seen, but as long as India is unwilling to

openly address the underlying social problems and causes of this

disease it is unlikely.

 

HIV/AIDS is spread primarily through unsafe medical practices and

sexual promiscuity. As long as people of the third sex (i.e. gays,

lesbians, bisexuals, transgenders and the intersexed) are ignored,

stigmatized and socially marginalized from normal Indian society as

they are today--being discouraged and prevented from engaging in safe

behavior and healthy, committed relationships--they will continue to

be major victims of this disease. Society will suffer as a whole

because we are all interconnected and, as in South Africa, AIDS will

quickly spread to the larger heterosexual community.

 

-Amara

 

Here are some of the editorials:

 

---------------------------

Indian Newspapers React to Bill Gates' Trip, Gates Foundation $100M

Grant

to Fight AIDS in India

 

Indian newspapers this week have published editorials in response to

Microsoft CEO Bill Gates' trip to the country. At the start of his

trip,

Gates announced a $100 million Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant

to

help fight HIV/AIDS in the country. The grant is to be administered

by

Indian Health Minister Shatrughan Sinha. However, Sinha blamed Gates

and

U.S. Ambassador to India Robert Blackwill for "spreading panic" in

India

about HIV/AIDS and said that reports that projected India could have

25

million people with HIV/AIDS by 2010 are "completely inaccurate"

(Kaiser

Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 11/11). Summaries of three of the editorials

appear

below:

* It is a "telling commentary" on India's fight against HIV/AIDS that

it

takes a visit from Gates to "focus the country's attention on the

problem,"

an Economic Times editorial states. The attempt by Sinha and the

National

AIDS Control Organization to "ignore the large absolute numbers and

take

comfort in the fact that the 'prevalence of disease in the country is

much

lower than in many other Asian countries' ... is poor consolation,"

the

editorial says. HIV/AIDS awareness programs "coupled with drives for

free

distribution of condoms do not call for vast funds and yet can go a

long

way to prevent the spread" of the disease, the Times states. "We need

to

act now if we are not to go the way of many African countries where

[HIV/AIDS] has led to a sharp increase in poverty and a decrease in

life

expectancy," the editorial concludes (Economic Times, 11/12).

* The message from Sinha to Gates is "clear -- give us your money to

fight

HIV/AIDS ... but don't raise any uncomfortable questions," a Times of

India

editorial states. Gates' fears that an HIV/AIDS epidemic "could

destabilize

the country both socially and economically are well-founded," the

editorial

says. However, the government's response "has been to slam Gates

instead of

coming up with strategies to tackle the problem," according to the

Times of

India. India's attitude should be that the "foundation's money will

go a

long way in the fight against" the disease, and Sinha "should seize

on this

rather than be such a spoilsport," the editorial concludes (Times of

India,

11/11).

* Gates "deserves kudos" for his pledge -- which is "almost equal to

what

the U.S. government has pledged" to India to fight HIV/AIDS --

because such

private philanthropy is "unprecedented," an Indian Express editorial

states. The donation will hopefully "spu[r] the health ministry to

wake up

to the magnitude of the problem it has shirked or skirted so far,"

the

editorial says. According to the Indian Express, the health

ministry "has

abdicated its responsibility to lead the fight" against HIV/AIDS, and

"government initiative alone" will not "wipe out this threat." Gates'

donation "will hopefully spur Indian businessmen to awaken to their

social

responsibility," the Indian Express continues. The editorial

concludes,

"Let us accept Gates' help with good grace and learn from it. It is

past

time we addressed the problem instead of bickering over whether or

not it

exists" (Indian Express, 11/12).

 

Wednesday, November 13, 2002 | THe Telegraph ( Calcutta)

The Indian AIDS scenario is grim. And getting a lot of money from a

tremendously rich man will help. In this sort of a situation, to get

defensive about the nation's HIV/AIDS statistics is not only

monumentally

ill-advised, but also in bad taste. Mr Shatrughan Sinha may have

picked up

a thing or two about the global AIDS crisis from Barcelona, but the

red

ribbon should be kept as far away as possible from red-tape,

particularly

of the government-of-India variety. Mr Bill Gates has channelled some

of

his wealth towards the prevention of HIV/AIDS in India and the care

of

those living with the virus. He would naturally want to monitor how

the

funds are being used. He will have to work out — in consultation with

those

who really know about these things in India — how best to combine

nongovernmental organizations, health department bureaucrats, medical

authorities and management specialists in making up the foundation in

India. The government's role in this process should be to facilitate

matters and to try as hard as possible to not let its ignorance,

prejudices

and inefficiency hinder the operations.

Mr Gates has targetted truckdrivers, migrant labourers and their

sexual

partners in his project. This focus must not, however, fall into the

standard and mistaken equation of AIDS-related ignorance with poverty

and

illiteracy. The urban respectable classes are equally ignorant,

prejudiced,

hypocritical and irresponsible when it comes to sexually transmitted

diseases. Also, the great Indian denial of the relationship between

HIV/AIDS and the sexual behaviour of men who have sex with men will

have to

be overcome in order to make proper use of the money. And this,

without the

prejudice and violence usually directed towards these men, and

towards the

NGOs and activists who work with them. Mr Gates is rightly concerned

about

the inhuman attitudes towards those infected with the virus. But this

stigma is inseparable from other social taboos in India, kept up by

ordinary people as well as governmental bodies. Besides, the funds

should

be administered only by those who can handle large sums of money

without

making a mess of it. It would be wise to keep number-crunching

bureaucrats

and ministers as far away from all this as possible.

http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=14568

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