+ve Women's Stories: Anandi Yuvraj

February 24, 2003

Anandi Yuvraj, 37, of Tamilnadu, India, is Joint Secretary of the Indian

Network for People Living with HIV/AIDS, an example herself of the

liberation that facing one's condition can bring, even in a society that

shames and hides its AIDS victims. She can be reached at inpplus@...,

or at tel. 91-44-432-9580, fax 91-44-432-9582, or at 91-42-424-1378, or at

#6 Kash Towers, 93 SW Boag Road, T.Nagar, Chennai, 600-017.

It was after her second miscarriage, when her abusive husband was pressing

her hard to get pregnant, that Anandi Yuvraj visited a doctor in her home

town of Tamilnadu, India, for a fertility test. She was fine in that way, he

told her, but she was also HIV-positive. " My husband confessed that he had

had unprotected sex outside of our marriage, " she says, " but he was hale and

hearty and didn't believe he could be infected. He was just thin. "

He refused to use a condom and began telling people she was pregnant. She

filed for divorce, " Not because of HIV-we can take care of that-but because

he was pressuring me so hard and beating me, " she said. " He violated my

rights. "

Yuvraj had a master's degree in zoology, had done research on quails and

taught at the university level, so she had a way to earn a living, but

instead she joined the Indian Network for People Living with HIV/AIDS in

1997 as an office assistant, in order to help save women's lives. " We who

are privileged to have the information about our health must use it to help

others. The majority of women who live in rural areas, especially, don't see

that they are at risk because we women have no control over our bodies. "

Now Yuvraj travels in the Tamilnadu region, speaking to rural women about

their rights. She is open about her HIV status-generally healthy so far-but

maintains that individuals have the right to keep their condition secret as

long as they do not spread the disease. " If I have AIDS why should I tell

anyone? I know I'm not going to transmit it. It's between me and my

husband. "

All this makes Yuvrajj a very untraditional Indian woman. But one of her

strongest supporters is her mother, a non-literate homemaker who herself

survived an alcoholic husband to raise and educate Yuvraj and her three

siblings. " She gives me full freedom that some educated [indian] women don't

have, " Yuvraj says. " I don't think I need a man in my life and this is very

unusual in India. But my mother is strong for me. She says, 'Just let my

daughter be happy.' "

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