Hateful anti-gay law must go: NACO

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" Hateful " anti-gay law must go: Indian govt agency

By Kamil Zaheer, Wed Sep 27, 2006 1:28am ET

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A British colonial era law in India that

criminalizes homosexuality is " not acceptable " and scrapping it

is " fundamental " to the fight against AIDS, the country's top

official leading efforts to end the disease said.

Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code carries a maximum penalty of 10

years in jail for men having gay sex.

" This is not acceptable. Section 377 is quite an anachronism, "

Sujatha Rao, the chief of the state-run National AIDS Control

Organization (NACO), told cheering delegates late on Tuesday at the

end of a four-day Asia-Pacific conference on male sexual health and

HIV. She termed the law " hateful " .

The law, enacted in 1861 by British colonial rulers, is being

challenged in New Delhi's High Court by an Indian anti-AIDS

voluntary group. The challenge has been supported by

NACO.

Activists say policemen use Section 377 to extract money from gay

men sitting in parks or lanes and the threat of penal action only

compounds the problems of social stigma and discrimination the

sexual minority faces in India.

NACO estimates India's population of men having sex with men (MSM)

to be about 2.5 million but says it could be far higher. It

estimates that around 25 percent of MSM are HIV positive.

" It is important to end this (Section 377), otherwise it would be

very difficult to reach out to MSMs and end the spread of this

infection, " Rao told reporters after the conference

She said only about six to eight percent of gay men were covered by

outreach projects, which include distribution of condoms.

India has 5.7 million people living with HIV/AIDS, more than any

other country, according to the United Nations.

Gay men are seen as a high-risk group along with female prostitutes

and intravenous drug users.

India's home ministry has opposed the removal of the law, saying

that public opinion was not in favor of legalizing sex between men.

But Rao said that NACO was talking to the home ministry about

reaching a common position before the next court hearing scheduled

in October.

Her comments, possibly the strongest public criticism of the law by

a government official, came 10 days after leading Indian writers,

lawyers and artists wrote an open letter to the government asking it

to remove the " monstrous " law.

" With this law, MSMs are scared to come out in the open and we can't

work with them (on HIV prevention). "

Those who have been jailed under the law are calling for the

government to scrap it immediately.

" I was beaten in jail by policemen, did not get enough water and

faced abuse from other prisoners because of the general homophobia, "

said Arif Jafar, a well-known activist working with gay men in the

northern state of Uttar Pradesh

Jafar, who is gay, had been arrested under Section 377 for 47 days

last year. Though out of jail, he still has to attend court in

Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh's capital, to fight his case.

" This law must go. No one should suffer the humiliation I went

through, " he told Reuters after the conference

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type=healthNews & storyID=2006-09-27