Rural India at risk to HIV/AIDS

June 9, 2003

Dear Forum,

Recently, I was conducting a workshop with Self Help Group animators working in

villages of Uttar Pradesh.

It was a group of 24 male and female animators representing 80 villages. Uttar

Pradesh being an officially classified low prevalent state, I had thought none

of the participants would have ever seen an AIDS patient. To my surprise two of

them narrated the complete stories from the source of infection to the death of

the person and the stigma faced within the family and outside. Both these males

had gone to Mumbai for work. I started going into depth about the reasons. A

few persons staying in urban UP were also attending the meeting. I asked all

individuals to tell me, when it was they had heard of HIV/AIDS? There was a

distinct difference between the urban and rural participants. The former had

heard 5 or more years before and the latter within the last two years. Child

marriage also seemed to be rampant. Almost all the rural participants had got

married before the recommended age of 18 and 21 (female and male). Two of the

participant also mentioned marrying off their children below those ages.

This paints a very grim picture of the rural India. 70% of the India's populace

resides in the countryside where education, information system and health

systems are less than adequate. I would assume we also do not know enough what

is going on there in terms of HIV/AIDS. The urban India particularly some cities

have appeared to be hot spots for HIV/AIDS owing to the presence of the red

light areas and have invited some form of intervention but the rural India has

escaped attention and remained totally neglected. The above example gives strong

indication of the migration of HIV from urban to rural and the next step is

spread within rural, which also has multi-partner and other forms of sexual

activities happening. The greater danger is, the rural India also has less of

information and resources.

Dr. Ashok Kumar Agarwal, MBBS, MD

Technical Advisor- HIV/AIDS

Catholic Relief Services

4/2 Orient Row, Kolkata - 700 017

India

Tel. No. 91-33-247 6433/1969

Fax No. 91-33-240 8652

E-mail : drashok@...

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