HIV and AIDS

HIV/AIDS:

Origin:

Together, we can make HIV/AIDS 

a page in our history books

According to “Cut Hunter Theory”, it is believed that the origin of HIV drives from some natural evolutionary event. However, recent research holds that origin of HIV/AIDS could never have happened in this way. US Government’s chief DNA sequence analyst at the Los Alamos Laboratory in New Maxico Dr. Gerald Myers reported that genetic sequencing studies prove some "punctuated origin of AIDS event" took place during the mid-1970s giving rise, virtually simultaneously, to at least ten different HIV "clades" (or genetic subtypes) associated with ten different distinguishable AIDS epidemics in Africa alone.

HIV/AIDS: Worldwide& India

The latest statistics of the global HIV/AIDS epidemic was published by UNAIDS, WHO and UNICEF in November 2011, it is estimated that there 34 million people living with HIV/AIDS. People infectedin 2010 with HIV were 2.7 million. On the other hand, 1.8 million deaths occurred due to AIDS in the same year. According to the WHO Progress Report on HIV/AIDS in South-East Asia 2011, an estimated 3.5 million people were living with HIV/AIDS in 2010, including 140,000 children. Women accounted for 37 percent of this population.

History of HIV in India

The presence of HIV infection was first detected in India in 1986, when Dr Jacob John and DrSuniti Solomon identified 10 HIV positive samples out of a group of 102 female sex workers from Chennai. At this time it was believed that India had little to fear from a disease that was then believed to spread primarily through sex between men, through injecting drug use and through multi-partner heterosexual sex. It was felt that this country saw very little of these risk behaviours.But these were facts were just the tip of an iceberg.When today we look at the whopping numbers of HIV/AIDS infected people be it adult male,female or children nobody could have imagined the exponential growth of this deadly infection.Today , India is the third largest country having maximum number of people living with HIV/AIDS.

The total number of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) in India is estimated at 24 lakh (19.3 – 30.4) in 2009. Children (<15 yrs) account for 3.5% of all infections, while 83% are the in age group 15-49 years. Of all HIV infections, 39% (9.3 lakh) are among women. The four high prevalence states of South India (Andhra Pradesh – 5 lakh, Maharashtra – 4.2 lakh, Karnataka – 2.5 lakh, Tamil Nadu – 1.5 lakh) account for 55% of all HIV infections in the country. West Bengal, Gujarat, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh are estimated to have more than 1 lakh PLHA each and together account for another 22% of HIV infections in India. The states of Punjab, Orissa, Rajasthan & Madhya Pradesh have 50,000 – 1 lakh HIV infections each and together account for another 12% of HIV infections. These states, in spite of low HIV prevalence, have large number of PLHA due to the large population size.

The Call

The time has arrived when we step up and break the age old taboo’s. The new initiative by NACP has worked considerably in reducing the infection by 50% in the last decade.The HIV estimates 2008-09 highlight an overall reduction in adult HIV prevalence and HIV incidence (new infections) in India. Adult HIV prevalence at national level has declined from 0.41% in 2000 to 0.31% in 2009, although variations exist across the states. The estimated number of new annual HIV infections has declined by more than 50% over the past decade.

India’s response to the HIV epidemic and the broad social mobilisation of stakeholders has achieved significant results in controlling the HIV epidemic. The achievements warrant the need for further commitment and coordinated joint action that is guided by the best available scientific evidence and technical knowledge. We need to renew our commitment to adapt and strengthen HIV prevention strategies. Close engagement with civil society and people living with and affected by HIV will prevent new infections and produce measurable impacts. We need also to protect people most affected, and promote human and gender rights. For this, India is working towards a comprehensive response to AIDS that unifies forces of stakeholders and integrates HIV prevention, treatment, care and support.”

  So let us take the 3 pledges:

1.We will support the prevention of HIV/AIDS in all possible ways

2.We will not discriminate people living with HIV/AIDS

3.We will give them equal rights in education, work place and in our society.

“ At the stroke of midnight hour when the whole world sleeps India awakes to life and freedom. And now the moment has come to redeem it. Long, long years ago we made a tryst with destiny”

The famous horological statement “ At the stroke of midnight hour when the whole world sleeps India awakes to life and freedom. And now the moment has come to redeem it. Long, long years ago we made a tryst with destiny” has to still stand the test of redemption. In the light of this context, the status of UN millennium development goal is at crossroads with respect to India.

After independence, policy makers in India expected to tackle poverty by the “trickle down of growth” with higher growth resulting in larger trickle down and faster decline in poverty and thereby achieving holistic development 

.Alas! The growth hardly happened. The straight jacket formula featured by policy and lack of tailored approach with least targeted methods led to fall out of Trickledown theory.

There are plethoras of issues, which have been engulfing India since time then with no desired qualitative results. We at Development labs are trying to figure out the present development scenario and will present our views in a series format on the line of UN Millennium Development Goals, which we consider an effective global campaign covering almost all developmental causes.

We welcome comments and suggestion from the whole globe.

Alphabet Song A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Promoting 2nd Millennium Development Goal by designing movie for Class Kindergarten

Development Labs a non political, non government and non religious organization design movie for Radha Govind Public Welfare Society. The purpose of the movie is to facilitate education to the kids of kindergarten Class.

Emergence of women into the public sphere as power brokers

"Now, the people’s representatives will have to form their own organisation; they will have to fight their own battles" concluded Mamta Jaitly in her award-winning entry on panchayat women leaders. As one read through her piece, the reason for this somewhat alarming statement became clear. On October 2 this year, together with Deepak Tiwari of The Week, Mamta received the Second Sarojini Naidu Prize for Best Reporting on Women in Panchayati Raj in Hindi. Both journalists exposed in chilling detail some of the hurdles and indignities faced by women leaders in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh - a counterpoint indeed to the naïve view of many that it’s an easy road to women’s empowerment. Sponsored by The Hunger Project (THP), the Prize, first instituted in 2001, is awarded by a distinguished jury headed by Mr. Ajit Bhattacharjea, Director of the Press Institute of India. The Hunger Project is a "strategic organisation and global movement committed to the sustainable end of world hunger" and the Prize is a part of its commitment to sustain "a strategic campaign of action for women’s leadership" with Panchayati Raj specifically in mind. Of the 456 articles received this year, 156 went to the jury after pre-screening. While commenting on the increase in the number of entries (there were only 166 in 2001), Mr. Bhattacharjea pointed out that the emphasis was on field coverage rather than on "informed essays" as these were regarded as more reader-friendly and authentic. Interestingly, this year’s articles dealt more with the problems faced by the women - and these were not only limited to the ubiquitous husband (known now as sarpanch-pati) intruding into the role of his newly-empowered wife. However, as contributions in Other Indian Languages had been disappointing, no award was made in this category. Ten years ago, the Indian Parliament passed an amendment to the Constitution that has empowered over a million women and changed their lives irrevocably; yet, there are quite a few misconceptions - as well as a miasma of prejudice - about the 73rd Amendment that reserves a third of seats for women in Panchayati Raj institutions. Many of these stem from a resistance to accepting the emergence of women into the public sphere as power brokers. For this historic step has interrogated the private/public dichotomy and forced discussion on issues such as women’s traditional roles, familial expectations and changing responsibilities. A number of the submissions for the Sarojini Naidu Prize in 2001 were stories of such debuts, of the first tentative coming out. In the article that won him the Prize in 2001, K.P.M. Basheer (The Hindu) reported that one-fourth of the 100 village panchayats in the Muslim-dominated Malarppuram district (Kerala) are headed by Muslim women. He commented "this is remarkable for a community which, not long ago, frowned upon women going to the fair-price shop to fetch their weekly rations" and where, unlike many other parts of the state, women are victims of dowry abuse, low literacy, teenage marriage and adolescent childbirth. When she went to the panchayat office in the initial few months, Ms. R.K. Hafsath used to be accompanied by her husband; self-confidence was rapidly built up and soon as President of the Thripprangot panchayat, she was addressing meetings and handling the outside world with ease. How do women in the panchayats grapple with the nuts and bolts of development at the grassroots? Do their life experiences work against their coming to grips with the issues at hand? Evidence points to the contrary and within a few months of assuming power, a substantial percentage has argued for hand pumps, more schools, Primary Health Centres, stopped child marriages and seen to it that the enrolment of girl children in schools is ensured. But as is inevitably the case, there is a price to be paid for all such going-against-the-grain interventions. In his entry entitled "Electric Chair: Dalit Women Sarpanches are Abused", Deepak Tiwari documented a number of instances of caste oppression of Dalit women in Madhya Pradesh. And here sexual vulnerability comes into play as they are stripped, raped and humiliated by upper caste men. Not afraid to speak of her trauma, Mathurabai, sarpanch of Gaintoli village in Morena district, recounted how she was stripped and beaten up for lodging a complaint against the former sarpanch for not allowing her to perform her duties; he had earlier extorted money from her for a supposed handing that never took place. Worse still, Guddibai from Sinalwalkala in neighbouring Shivpuri was raped by male opponents who had lost the elections. And the local network has it that hers was not an isolated case - only that Dalits are afraid to report. The other winner of this year’s award, Jaipur-based Mamta Jaitly who edits Ujala Chhadi, a monthly newspaper for rural readers as well as coordinates Vividha Women’s Documentation and Resource Centre, has a long history in the increasingly important genre of investigative journalism. Her insights into the lives of Chhagi Bai who was expelled from the panchayat for developmental activities - including the closing down of a liquor shop - and Looni Devi who came as a refugee from Pakistan and lived below the poverty line for years, are instances of women’s indomitable personal courage and tenacity in the struggle for justice. After becoming a sarpanch in Bikaner district, Looni Devi made herself more aware and informed of what was required; it was not long before the ghunghat (veil) was put aside and she was working for tube wells in the village, better training for midwives and of course, for girls’ education. When Phooli Devi, sarpanch of the Deva panchayat in Jaisalmer district found that basic medical amenities were sadly lacking, she appealed to the District Collector for help - and came back to the village with a few beds for the new hospital! Undaunted by the lack of space, Phooli Devi requisitioned an unused nurses’ quarters, spent Rs. 15,000 out of her meagre savings for its repair and renovation and started a basic medical service equipped now with beds and fans. However, instances of such exceptional women are matched equally by horror stories that speak of torture, extortion and physical abuse of women in the panchayats and their families. Those from the Dalit community are particularly vulnerable, leading Mamta to argue in favour of elected representatives fighting for their rights. On the face of it, this seems like a paradoxical situation for a newly-emergent elite that should have all the power and authority on its side; but then these are women, first generation learners of a different sort, functioning in a hierarchical, basically patriarchal society where the odds are still heavily against them. That the media has a significant role to play in providing information, instances and anecdotes on a subject as vital as women’s empowerment has been appropriately recognised by THP through its prestigious Sarojini Naidu Prize. Nor is the Prize an end in itself but an integral component of a "partnership" between a committed international organisation and the media aimed at facilitating a much-needed interface between the latter and these women through workshops and meetings that stress the importance of decentralisation and the role of women in the panchayats. As Rita Sarin, Country Director of THP pointed out, interacting with over five thousand elected women representatives from villages throughout the country convinced the organisers that a tremendous change is underway - where "from being unwanted at birth" and inhibited initially in their new role as panchayat leaders, these women are "taking bold steps to change their immediate environment of hunger, violence and inequity". And it is never too early to reiterate the need for a responsible, pro-active media to highlight these victories as well as the many questions that are being asked about the processes of development, the impact of the market, globalisation and so on, particularly on women and children. Against this backdrop, the elected woman representative from the grassroots becomes all the more crucial, both as a knowledge manager as well as a change agent in this fast-changing and at times confusing environment of competing realities and claims.

Abdul Qayyum ( Chief C.G.H.S), Cabinet Minister Subodh Kant Sahay, Dr Dhanmendra-Founder of R.K.HIV AIDS & Research Care Centre, Mamta Sharma- Chair Person NCW, Former MP Naval Kishore Rai with Team Development Labs

Abdul Qayyum ( Chief C.G.H.S), Cabinet Minister Subodh Kant Sahay, Dr Dhanmendra-Founder of R.K.HIV AIDS & Research Care Centre, Mamta Sharma- Chair Person NCW, Former MP Nawal Kishore Rai with Team Development Labs.

Dr. Pai, Gynaecologist, Infertility Specialist and Dr. Rishma with volunteers of Development Labs at Shri Sathya Sai International Hall...

Dr. Pai, Gynaecologist, Infertility Specialist and Dr. Rishma with volunteers of Development Labs at Shri Sathya Sai International Hall...