Ponamma's death... is it blowin in the wind??

July 27, 2003

Hi.

The Chittoor case, Ponamma’s death, has opened up, not a Pandora’s box, but a

can of worms… slimy and slithery, moving back and forth, stepping on people’s

toes & people stepping on them in turn… that in a nutshell is what I have been

noticing on AIDS INDIA group (if I m wrong, ignore it as a potboiler).

Allow me to introduce myself. I am a medical doctor, passed MBBS in 90 & then

worked in Psychiatry besides General Medicine for a few years before moving out.

For the last 10 years I have been making films… as a director & producer. The

work I do is perhaps decent enough to allow me to earn a living out of it and I

do not practice medicine, in conventional terms, at all now.

I am interested in health issues and AIDS / HIV has been one of my concerns for

a long time. The Chittoor case brought back the focus of many to the ‘stigma

issue’. However this is not the first one. Some 5 years ago villagers

boycotted the family of a man who died of AIDS. But this wasn’t all. The

neighboring villages boycotted the whole village for the same reason. The drama

happened right next to our capital Delhi. It took a lot of time before things

cooled down.

Around the same time there were quite a few other cases of people, suspected to

be AIDS patients, being lynched or killed or burnt in other parts of the

country. Those, perhaps, were small signs of where we were heading… thanks to

the ‘fear based’ awareness campaigns (remember - AIDS CAN KILL & other such

slogans).

Anyhow, we are trying to work on a documentary on ‘understanding of AIDS’ among

people in INDIA. The film will also explore truth behind Ponnamma’s case

beside some other basic issues. Wonder if any organizations / individuals on

this listwould be interested in funding the project.

We will be happy to send our work profile / or any other information about us to

you if you are interested in helping us on the project. At the moment I am

based in Delhi. Recently shifted from Bangalore.

PS: something to ponder about: Lets assume ponamma was NOT stoned to death.

Does that change things around us? Does that help the two HIV+ children in

Kerala who were throne out of school? Does that reduce the trauma of the

innumerable other AIDS patients & HIV+ persons in the country who are shunned

from there own homes and crave to live without being discriminated against?

Please contact us on: f20com@...

Best wishes

Dr. Parvez Imam

f-20 Communications

E-mail: <f20com@...>

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