Re: Stigma and Discrimination of PLWHA in Manipur

[Guest guest]

Dear FORUM,

This forum have seen a number of communication regarding the stigma and

discrimination meted out to PLWHA. There was this great happening in Sahar

airport , then there was this in Chennai regarding photographing of PLWHA. And

now it is the turn of the Manipur PLWHAs.

We need to see the letter from Manipur from 2 angles. First, there is an over

proliferation of NGOs in Manipur working on drugs and HIV/ AIDS and there is a

struggle for survival . We have good reasons to believe that inspite of their

presence and action for the past 10- 15 years, nothing much has happened except

that, one, they have been able to attract a lot of funds and have developed a

lot of connections all over the country and the world and two, they have been

able to sustain themselves by diversifying their activities.

These NGOs have been capitalising on people who use drugs and PHWLA because it

is on the basis of this that they have been able to impress upon the donors

about their " achievements " and it is this what the donors want to see - a

procession of drug users and PWLHA - this is the physical achievement of their

monetary support.

Have funders ever tried exploring indirect indicators on knowing the success of

a project which they have funded ? Go to any State AIDS Control Society. You

shall invariably encounter officials who will ask NGOs who they are funding for

STD/HIV/AIDS activities - how many PLWHA have you been able to identify (or

treat) ?

In my state (I am intentionally resisting from mentioning the name of my state

in my present communication) do you know how World AIDS day is celebrated? The

SACS has a fixed mind set and it will go by that . To make NGOs partners in the

wrong doing they will be invited for a couple of meetings to discuss and

finalise the celebration agenda. And variably there will be a rally - and what

a rally. There will be a foot rally, a bike rally , a motor car rally so much so

that it indeed becomes a celebration. Now, in the meetings the NGOs will ask one

by one " How many people will you be able to bring to the rally " ? Some NGOs are

bold enough to say 5 or 10 or even 15. Some are not bold enough and admit to

bringing 40, 50 or even 60 and there are some NGOs who will go to any figure of

even 200 , 250 ! Now is it the NGOs responsibility of gathering people for a

rally like it is done while organising political rallies ? Now the spin off for

the NGO which mobilised large number of people is that it has entered into good

books of the SACS while the others have been left far behind in spite of the

fact that they had better work to their credit - but who cares ? The same thing

has happened to Manipur and to name just a couple of organistions is unfair !!

Second, PLWHA love to be pampered. They have always felt attracted to

individuals and organisations who pamper them . Once their interests are not met

, they start spitting venom against them. These groups have also started taking

sides - they will become spokespersons of those organisations which will pamper

them more. So when I saw the communication from Manipur , I was forced to

believe that no matter what has been written in it may to true to a large

extent but I am not at all convinced that some other pampering organisation is

not using this group against the accused organisation and the ministry. It is

just a matter of days when the actual facts will come out.

Alban Marak

E-mail: roving_eyes@...

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum,

As I came to know of the issue and my interest here is not necessarily that I am

from that community. Here I want to make a point if the gentleman Mr.Alban Marak

or roving eyes is not from the users community or others related groups

what is his interest for working with this stigmatised and discriminated

community?

What I mean is that we much all be aware of the situation faces by the people

with AIDS or Drug users in this part of the country and I don't know why he use

old discriminated work like pamper or pampering. As a reminder to certain

individual personally, I would like to tell that we are all working very very

hard to reduce the problems of Drug uses and HIV/AIDS issue with a full

understanding or owning of the problems.

As an Users organisation who work on experiences,humility,courage and wisdom

with an impact on our sincere services of climbing high mountain with low

logistics support, the nagative thinking of Mr.Alban Marak (I supposed he is

from NE ) may burst out things from the right tract which everybody is

proceeding.

My humble suggestion would be if the interest area is not for them than better

they don't interfare others and they are free to join any issues or any

approaches or mining for Lime or Urinium.

Lastly,this particular issue is an issue which we didn't come accross for the a

decade in the feild so we take this issue very seriously.

Thanking you

Best Regards,

L.Birendrajit Singh

General Secretary

SASO,Imphal

E-mail: <lbirendrajit@...>