HIV/AIDS (37 images)

HIV/AIDS in India
When Indians think of HIV/AIDS, they think mostly of sex, of deadly sex. They think that the person concerned has been inflicted with a punishment from God. They say they are cursed.
HIV/AIDS in India is not ´just` an infection, the term is more a repository for all sorts of fears, prejudices and rumours. Thus for many people with HIV/AIDS, the social ostracism and exclusion are almost worse than the infection itself. Many try therefore to keep their HIV...
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HIV/AIDS in India
When Indians think of HIV/AIDS, they think mostly of sex, of deadly sex. They think that the person concerned has been inflicted with a punishment from God. They say they are cursed.
HIV/AIDS in India is not ´just` an infection, the term is more a repository for all sorts of fears, prejudices and rumours. Thus for many people with HIV/AIDS, the social ostracism and exclusion are almost worse than the infection itself. Many try therefore to keep their HIV status quiet. Thus the paradox arises that in spite of a rising infection rate, the HIV status of those affected remains largely hidden.
In India live world-wide the most people with HIV/AIDS. An estimated 3 million. The dark figure could however be significantly higher, as few people have themselves tested. Also, the criminalisation and social exclusion of so-called risk groups (MSM - males who have sex with males, sex workers, injecting drug users) contributes to the fact that many cases of new infection are not reported.
Almost half the infected people in India are women. Women are, because of their weak social position, particularly threatened by HIV/AIDS, because Indian society is structured patriarchally. Thus women have no right to sexual self-determination. At the same time, HIV positive women are doubly discriminated: as women and as HIV infected. As a rule, wives are held responsible for their husbands' HIV status. They are socially ostracised and banished from the marital home. Because women mostly do not have their own income, there is often nothing else they can do - if they are allowed to - other than to return to their parents' house. This amounts to an admission of their failure as a wife and daughter.
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