Human Rights Watch report on AIDS in INDIA

[Guest guest]

Hello everyone,

Human Rights Watch is releasing a report of interest in Barcelona

today. Full text is available at

http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/07/india070902.htm.

Here's a notice about it.

Best regards,

Geoff Cowley

Newsweek

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In a thirty-three-page report released as the XIV International AIDS

Conference begins in Barcelona, Spain, Human Rights Watch documented

numerous cases of police harassment and violence against HIV/AIDS

outreach workers in India. The HIV/AIDS prevention workers help

those at highest risk of getting AIDS, especially women in

prostitution and men who have sex with men.

" The Indian government is shooting its own AIDS program in the

foot, " said Joanne Csete, director of the HIV/AIDS and Human Rights

Program at Human Rights Watch, and the author of the

report. " Undermining prevention among high-risk people is a sure way

to speed along the spread of AIDS among these persons and in the

general population. "

Several organizations in India have succeeded in empowering women in

prostitution to demand condom use of their clients. One such

organization, SANGRAM in Sangli, Maharashtra State, helped AIDS

educators distribute 350,000 condoms per month in twelve districts

among sex workers and others at risk. But in recent months, police

abuse of SANGRAM's workers as well as of others in Bangalore and

Tamil Nadu State has sabotaged their life-saving work.

In Bangalore, HIV/AIDS peer educators working with women in

prostitution were beaten severely by the police. One AIDS worker had

hot chili powder rubbed into her eyes and vagina. Police

perpetrators of these crimes have gone unpunished.

Men who have sex with men live in deep stigma in India, and AIDS

outreach workers who provide information and condoms to these men

also suffer abuse at the hands of police. HIV/AIDS peer educators

who work with these men in four states reported numerous incidents

of harassment and extortion of money and sex by the police as well

as detention based on trumped-up charges. This abuse has at times

shut down AIDS prevention work among these vulnerable persons.

" The government provides condoms and sometimes money to groups doing

AIDS outreach work with high-risk people and says this is a priority

for AIDS prevention, but the official statements ring hollow in the

face of police violence, " said Csete. " The big winner here is the

AIDS epidemic, which will continue to kill millions unless this

abuse is stopped. "

An antiquated sodomy law on the books in India since the colonial

period is frequently used by the police to justify their actions

against AIDS workers reaching out to men who have sex with men.

Human Rights Watch calls on the government of India to repeal the

law and to ensure protection of HIV/AIDS outreach workers.

The government estimates that about 4 million persons are living

with HIV/AIDS in India, though many experts think this figure

greatly understates the reality. In five states of India, including

the giant states of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, the AIDS epidemic

has spread into the general population, according to government

figures.

India's national AIDS program is funded largely by a $191 million

World Bank loan, the terms of which include protecting the rights of

persons in high-risk populations.

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