Maharashtra village to make pre -marriage HIV test mandatory

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Hivare Bazar village to make HIV test mandatory

SIDDHARTHA D. KASHYAP

TIMES NEWS NETWORK [sUNDAY, NOVEMBER 03, 2002 12:35:34 AM ]

PUNE: Even as the Maharashtra government has ruled out mandatory HIV

tests before marriage, the village elders of Hivare Bazar, 16 km off

Ahmednagar, have decided that any outsider tying the nuptial knots

with any one from their village will have to undergo an HIV test

before marriage

While all the 225 families at Hivare Bazar have unanimously agreed to

the mandatory Enzyme Link Immuno Sorbent Assay () test before

marriage, a final decision will be taken by the gram sabha. Once

approved, the decision will be strictly enforced from April next.

The primary reason for initiating such a measure, as the village

sarpanch Popatrao Pawar explained, is to save the villagers from the

killer virus. " We don't want our children to become victims of

HIV/Aids, " he said, adding in a lighter vein, " prevention is always

better than cure, and in the case of HIV, there isn't any cure " .

He, however, said the decision was taken after detailed consultations

will all members in the village. When referred to the National AIDS

Control Organisation (Naco) guidelines, which doesn't allow mandatory

HIV testing, Mr Pawar only said, " Our state now figures among the top

three states with about 1.5 to 2 per cent of the adult population

falling prey to the virus, mainly due to their sexual behaviour " .

Pointing out to the alarming rise of HIV cases in the state, he said

there were many boys and girls from the village who get married to

people outside Hivare Bazar every year. " There have been many such

cases in our neighbouring areas where innocent women have been

infected with the virus by their promiscuous husbands, " he said,

adding, " fortunately, our village hasn't had a single positive case

so far " .

According to him, the idea was conceived when a college-going girl

wrote to the village elders if there could be any mechanism to

prevent the spread of Aids in the village. " We had asked a group of

the village youngsters to write what do they feel about the village

and the measures that need to be taken for betterment of its people, "

Pawar told TNN from his office at Ahmednagar. Mr Pawar, who helped

transform a poverty-stricken and crime-ridden Hivare Bazar to

prosperity through watershed management, said that efforts are

already on to involve the district administration.

" We are just awaiting a final approval in the gram sabha, following

which we will approach the district collector and other medical

authorities, " he said, adding the plans are also afoot to give some

concession to the poorest families in the village to undergo the test.

State health minister Digvijay Khanvilkar, in a recent interview to

TNN, had categorically ruled out mandatory HIV tests before marriage

in the state, saying that such an act would only add to the social

and ethical problems associated with the killer disease.

When pointed out that his Andhra Pradesh counterpart had announced

plans to introduce a legislation in his state to make such a test

mandatory for all people of marriageable age, Mr Khanvilkar said that

such an act would amount to violation of the NACO guidelines.

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