AP, AIDS Bill: Ten Reasons aganist Mandatory Pre-marital HIV Testing

April 8, 2003

Ten Reasons why Mandatory Pre-marital HIV Testing will not attain its

Objectives

1. The “Window” Period effectively will throw people off track,

unless persons wishing to get married go through the three confirmatory

tests spread over a period of a year, before getting married!

2. The stigma attached to the disease would effectively make the

parents try to obtain a false certificate about their ward’s status

irrespective of their risk behaviors. Imagine a father of a bride taking

his daughter for a HIV screening!

3. Lab technicians and doctors would make ungainly use of this to

make money (with due apologies to all the honest and principled

practitioners).

4. Majority of marriages are not registered, and keeping track of

these events becomes infeasible in our country.

5. There is no guarantee of behaviors post marriage.

6. No legislation should attempt to violate basic human rights, and

making pre-marital test mandatory purports to such violation.

7. Such laws introduced elsewhere in the world have been repealed

as they were found to be ineffective.

8. In India there have been instances of the groom’s parents hiding

the sero status of the boy deliberately to perform the wedding, hoping

the wife would take care of the boy afterwards. (Such evil customs still

persists).

9. The question of counseling (we have ample bad example in VCTCs)

and confidentiality should weigh enormously on the people proposing the

Bill.

10. Legislations have been either misused or abused in India and

like all other social laws, this would end up in books, neither

implemented nor enforced.

The solution lies in educating people and inculcating more responsible

sexual behavior. As behaviors change, there would be no need for

separate legislation.

Examples of laws like the Anti-Dowry, Sati & Rape related should prove

that these social evils can be eradicated only through behavior change.

Otherwise they would continue to pervade the society.

We should strive to bring about this metamorphosis. A new legislation is

no solution. It would help us feel good that we have attempted

something, but the dirt would still be under the carpet.

Sreeram

E-mail: <rmeera102@...>

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