Coercion, and Unethical Practice in HIV research by ICMR

[Guest guest]

The Police Raj is back again…

Continued use of Coercion, Police and Unethical Practice in HIV

research by ICMR even after a Decade of Intervention

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and its unethical and

insensitive practices with respect to testing for HIV among sex

workers that began in Watgunj (a red light area of Kolkata) in 1986

continues today, a decade after STD/HIV interventions among sex

workers began in India.

The National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED) an

ICMR institute in Kolkata was assigned by the West Bengal State AIDS

Prevention and Control Society (WBSAPCS) to conduct HIV prevalence

studies among sex workers, truckers and injecting drug users (IDUs)

in the state. The Principal Investigator (PI) for the study, Dr.

Kamalesh Sarkar is an epidemiologist from NICED. The sex worker

component of the study aimed to collect 1000 samples for unlinked

anonymous HIV testing from voluntary study participants from across

the state.

Dr. Sarkar requested Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC), the

sex workers' organisation that runs the world-renown Sonagachi

Project in Kolkata and conducts successful STD/HIV intervention in

49 brothel-based and 6 street-based sex work sites in West Bengal,

to assist the NICED team in collecting samples from sex workers.

DMSC agreed, although within the last 7-8 months, sex work sites

where DMSC has intervention programmes have participated in National

Sentinel Surveillance for HIV Prevalence (conducted by NACO, Govt.

of India), and Needs-Assessment Survey by WBSAPCS.

From the outset, Dr. Sarkar and his team insisted that this survey

be completed fast. He said as it was a WBSAPCS study, there should

be no delay in sample collection. At Cossipore Intervention site, he

demanded that sex workers and clients (predominantly truckers) be

lined up for testing – showing little respect for study volunteers

and for DMSC staff. Our staff, although feeling ill at ease,

assisted in the blood sample collection.

Matters came to a head when the NICED team reached Siliguri (North

Bengal). There the survey team were at their most obnoxious. Dr.

Sarkar threatened DMSC project staff with closure of the

intervention project and lay-offs, if they did not immediately

arrange for collecting blood samples from 800 to 1000 sex workers.

The project staff tried reasoning with him and assisted the NICED

team despite their discomfort with the way things were happening.

On 7 June, Dr. Sarkar contacted the local police and asked for their

assistance in forcible collection of blood samples from sex workers

of Siliguri. When police entered the sex work site, DMSC activists

reacted strongly and put a stop to the survey activity. This did not

deter Dr. Sarkar who contacted the local State Management Agency

(SMA) of WBSAPCS and requested the representative to take steps so

that the WBSAPCS forced sex workers to comply with the survey. He

urged the SMA representative to strong arm Siliguri branch of DMSC

and to use his powers to threaten them with closure.

To the credit of SMA and WBSAPCS, they did not respond to the high-

handed and coercive suggestions of Dr. Sarkar. On getting the

information that police had been used in an attempt to coerce sex

workers to provide blood samples for HIV testing, DMSC head office

in Kolkata contacted Mr. Suresh Kumar Project Director WBSAPCS.

The WBSAPCS acted promptly and put a stop to the survey. Mr. Kumar

has, in addition, assured DMSC that such action on behalf of NICED

has been uncalled for and that the WBSAPCS shall take necessary

action. That is how the matter stands as we go to press…

Friends, that such unethical, coercive and violent practices

continue to be used by premier medical research institutes speaks

volumes about the attitude of a large number of scientists and

doctors who are responsible for HIV/AIDS interventions in our

country.

As the largest sex workers' organisation in India besides running of

one the most internationally well-known and recognised STD/HIV

interventions among sex workers, we of DMSC state the following:

1. We strongly condemn the high-handed and coercive methods

attempted by Dr. Kamalesh Sarkar and his team from NICED for their

survey.

2. We demand that until ethical issues surrounding this research are

resolved, this survey be kept in abeyance, and no data and

information be used by NICED, or by any other body – scientific or

governmental.

3. We request all sex worker organisations and other rights

organisations to lodge protests against such high-handed and

unacceptable behaviour with NICED (Kolkata), ICMR, NACO and Ministry

of Health and Family Welfare (Govt. of India). We also request all

sister organisations to raise this issue at different forums that

they have access to.

4. DMSC has been and shall continue to fight for rights of all sex

workers and other marginalised communities – and that fight includes

fight for civil rights, human rights, right to work and right to

respect and dignity.

5. We feel that all social or bio-medical research can and must be

conducted with respect to and reliance on the participating

community, and in no way can their rights to information, to

consent, to refusal (to participate), to privacy, to access to

research product (reports, papers) and to dignity be violated in any

way.

6. Coercion, threats, use of police and state power for research on

human beings is impermissible by all international protocols, and we

at DMSC strongly uphold such international norms. We strongly

condemn any conscious violation of such norms of conduct by any

researcher, organisation or institute.

7. It is well recorded that DMSC has been and is one of the most

willing partners in bio-medical and social research on HIV/AIDS

among sex workers in India – but has never, and shall never

compromise the rights of sex workers during such research.

8. We take this opportunity to sincerely thank the WBSAPCS and its

PD and SMA (West Bengal) for their support and prompt response to

the crisis.

In Solidarity,

Swapna Gayen

Secretary

Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee

12/5 Nilmoni Mitra Street

Kolkata 700006

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