EXPERTS AT the two-day workshop “Women, HIV, AIDS and Media”, organised jointly by Charka of the United Nation Development Programme (UNDP) and the Samvyak said that women were not solely responsible for spreading the dreaded disease. They said HIV positive women had to face social stigma as compared to HIV positive men and less attention was being paid to women as far as the treatment was concerned.
They also opined that it was due to biased attitude and belief that out of total women detected with HIV positive, 60 per cent were from rural areas.
Speaking at the inaugural session of workshop, which began here on Saturday, noted media personality and Samvyak’s Rahul Dev said in 1986, not a single case of HIV positive had been detected. However, in the last 20 years, the figure touched an alarming level of 52 to 57 lakh. As per the available data, Dev said, about 40 per cent of these patients were women and of which 60 per cent belonged to rural areas.
He said the data revealed that of the HIV positive women only .5 per cent were sex workers. It’s crystal clear that most HIV positive women were from general families.
National Coordinator of the Charka Alankar Malviya said the fact came to light in 1990 that HIV positive cases were spreading fast among women. Gauging the seriousness of the problem, Charka was formed in 2003 and as a pilot project work for the women in this regard was started.
{{/usCountry}}National Coordinator of the Charka Alankar Malviya said the fact came to light in 1990 that HIV positive cases were spreading fast among women. Gauging the seriousness of the problem, Charka was formed in 2003 and as a pilot project work for the women in this regard was started.
{{/usCountry}}GSVM Medical College principal Dr SK Katiyar said that there was a need to expedite efforts in this regard only then success could be attained. He said the pace with which the disease was spreading in the South-East Asia, it was difficult to maintain the data. He said there were huge difference between the data available and the reality. He said if the condition remained same only long queue of orphans would be visible. He said admitting the truth could only help in fighting the dreaded disease.
In the inaugural session, UNDP’s Mona Misra stressed on the need for a change in the mindset of the society towards the HIV positive patients. She said several misconceptions had to be cleared to ensure justice to the affected.
She said the disease was not at all hereditary and that’s why its first word of AIDS was ‘Acquired’ meaning adopted from someone or some process. She also said that there was miniscule possibility that HIV could be spread through kiss.
She said that the misconception that AIDS could spread even through a barber’s blade was also wrong as no such cases had been reported so far.
Mukta Sharma of UPSEX, said that 14,548 cases of HIV positive and 2,728 cases of AIDS had been reported. She said if 1 per cent of women in any State was found to be HIV positive then the State would be declared as ‘high-risk area’. In the evening session, HIV positive patients shared their experiences.