Religion and HIV/AIDS in India

[Guest guest]

ARAVANAIPPU: People's Response to HIV/AIDS

AIDSLink: Issue 91 | 1 June 2005

Dr. Kezevino Aram, Director, Shanti Ashram

'ARAVANAIPPU' (a Tamil word that means 'compassionate care')

People's Response to HIV/AIDS

I recall two recent experiences that vividly illustrate the

important link between religion and HIV/AIDS. One took place while

reading through the special commemorative volume produced during the

centenary celebrations of Mahatma Gandhi. In his introduction, Dr.

Sarveppalli Radhakrishnan, the former president of India, writes

that a truly religious person cannot remain silent when he should

speak up or compromise when he should stand fast. " Gandhi's faith in

brotherhood is not a transcendental absolute, " he wrote, " but a call

to make it immanent in the facts of life. He tried to make his

religion a vital part of his life and apply it to the different

problems he faced. "

The other experience was finding myself at a state level children's

roundtable on HIV/AIDS, organized by Shanti Ashram and hearing 14-

year-old Ramakrishnan describe the persistent rejection he and his

brother faced because both their parents had succumbed to HIV/ AIDS.

One, a call to live life's highest values and the other, an

expression of the challenges of reality, are closely connected. As

young men and women fall ill and die, they often suffer spiritual

anguish, social isolation, and physical and economic hardships. They

leave behind grieving children, spouses and friends who call out for

practical guidance and comfort. Examples abound of ways where people

of faith have been of service, yet have not fully understood the

complicated nature of HIV/AIDS. Religious leaders can be especially

instrumental in eradicating the stigma and discrimination faced by

people living with HIV and AIDS, if they are informed and mobilized

to respond.

In this context, a third experience comes to mind. Just before the

2004 international AIDS conference in Bangkok, I was asked to send

materials on HIV/AIDS from the Hindu perspective. Although I am a

Hindu, this did not help me locate the materials – for there were

none. The structure of the Hindu tradition is very different from

the Abrahamic traditions. There is no single leader or authority and

no centralized institutions. There is no one-way to live as a Hindu.

Temples are not centers of social activity. Diversity is celebrated

as seen in the multitude of deities. The coming together of

leadership and people is a challenge that confronts and complicates

our immediate life and work.

Working in Tamil Nadu, one of the six high HIV prevalence states in

India, the Shanti Ashram is a faith-based organization true to the

Gandhian philosophy of Sarvodaya (the welfare of all – awakening of

all) as an ideal for a just social order. The work of the Ashram

also brings together three important values of Hindu life expressed

by Swami Vivekananda a much-loved Hindu saint and philosopher:

reverence for all life and the underlying unity; serving the Divine

by serving Her children and the power of self-help.

A member of our field staff, Mercy Meenakshi, put it this way: " We

must continue this work – for my faith-tradition has always taught

me that 'serving God can best be done by serving my people'! "

One of the Ashram's activities clearly illustrates the ground-level

practice of this philosophy. To raise awareness about HIV/AIDS, the

Ashram's women-led selfhelp groups (SHGs) and micro-credit units led

a community initiative to talk about blood safety – choosing the

topic in order to engage a wider audience than HIV/AIDS.

This decision by the organizers also factored in the common

perception that HIV affects 'them' not 'us' as well as the expansion

of the epidemic from high-risk population to the general population.

This simple local initiative reached more than 5,000 rural women.

Personal testimonies were shared, the curiosity and feeling of

support about HIV/AIDS was palpable as one group member shared her

HIV positive status! The collective preparation helped her to deal

with her situation and she found Aravanaippu (a Tamil word that

means 'compassionate care') amongst her community of rural sisters.

The Positive Mothers' Network of Tamil Nadu have started their own

self-help groups; the SHG membership of Perur is investing money in

HIV/AIDS programs that promote positive health and responsible

behavior, especially significant considering that 80 percent of the

membership make less than US$2 a day. As poverty increases their

vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, initiatives such as these equip them with

courage, skills and resources to respond to the growing epidemic.

The work of these wonderful rural women is remarkable not only

because they have generated more than 4.5 million rupees in savings

but because of the culture of selfhelp and mutual support they have

created.

While any number of local groups is working from the teachings of

their faith, there is no organized Hindu response. However, my

unsuccessful search for materials for Bangkok has stimulated new

initiatives. This includes a collection of contemporary voices of

religious leaders, women, youth and children along with the

thoughts, quotes and interpretations of ancient Hindu texts in a

booklet entitled HIV/AIDS – the human dimension: Voices from the

Hindu World.

This booklet encouraged others to initiate informed thought and

action through a deeper look into the religious traditions of the

Hindu world. Many diverse organizations have since taken their own

steps. More religious leaders are speaking and the Aravanaippu

initiative, supported by UNICEF and coordinated by Shanti Ashram, is

mapping religious organizations and developing a database.

The leaders who lent their voice to the booklet looked into their

own communities and identified individuals and organizations that

can lead or are currently engaged in local initiatives. The first

State-level Religious Leaders Round Table on HIV/AIDS was held in

April 2005. It was at that event that 14-year-old Ramakrishnan and

others told their stories. An amplified call for " ARAVANAIPPU " came

loud and clear from the roundtable. This is no small achievement,

for within 12 months an area of concern is being transformed into an

area of influence.

These kind of innovative experiences from the field give us hope and

the strength to believe that the direction of the HIV/AIDS epidemic

can change. The challenge however will be to see how we as a society

equip ourselves to develop a more inclusive and proactive response.

If we do not unwrap the magnitude of this human tragedy of HIV/AIDS,

it will only aggravate the pandemic, according to Swami Agnivesh, a

revered Hindu leader and social activist. Like the curve in

mathematics is made up of many dots, so are these responses from the

field – each distinct, purposeful and linked to the other.

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