Dead HIV+ youth felt let down by PGI Chandigarh HIV project funded by NIH US

[Guest guest]

HIV-positive youth ends life on rail track

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service. Chandigarh, March 15

After holding on to his life for years, Devinder finally gave it up this

morning. From the blood-splattered railway tracks dividing Baltana and Vikas

Nagar, the police recovered mutilated remains of a 19-year-old boy today.

On scouting harder for clues, they discovered a lone key and Rs 15. It was after

many announcements in the area that they found out who the boy was. He was a

commercial sex worker operating from the area. But the police still doesn’t know

he was also a peer educator involved with spreading HIV/AIDS awareness among men

having sex with men (MSMs).

For a few months now, Devinder had not been keeping well. Detected positive for

HIV a year ago, he even joined the HIV/AIDS project being run for homosexuals in

Mauli Jagran.

“He would advocate safe behaviour and condom use among MSMs though he himself

never used preventive measures. We got him tested in Sector 16 General Hospital

and he was positive,” said a counsellor.

With the HIV virus came depression which was already inherent in Devinder’s

life. Orphaned as a two-year-old when his parents died in an accident, he grew

up at Bal Niketan, Sector 2, Panchkula. He had told his friends that he was

first abused as a child by his own teacher and then abused by many of his

clients.

Very recently, he was put on antiretroviral therapy at the PGI. Counsellors at

the Drop-In Centre being run by State AIDS Control Society, Chandigarh in Sector

15, also say he was sick and had been indicating suicidal tendencies.

But somewhere in his heart, Devinder had already lost it, says his HIv positive

friend, also a commercial sex worker. “His pain had no outlet. The dearth of

money had also begun to pinch him. He had been asking for money from everyone.

Recently he came to our centre in Mauli Jagran asking for Rs 500 to conduct some

tests.”

Devinder had also been asking his rich friends to treat him with chocolates,

fruits and juices as he used to feel weak. Ashwani, a counsellor at Mauli

Jagran, said, “He had asked us to put him on fruits and juices and we had done

that.

But we still feel Devinder should have been kept at the Community Care Centre at

Khuda Alisher. He was admitted there about 15 days ago and was then discharged.”

Already under counselling at PGI’s Psychiatry Department, Devinder left

Community-Care Centre a few days ago.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070316/cth1.htm#20

___________________________

Dead HIV+ youth felt let down by PGI

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service, Chandigarh, March 16

Nineteen-year-old Devinder, who committed suicide yesterday, was keen

on a job on one of the HIV/AIDS projects at the PGI. But he never got

that job. " He was bright. He had cleared his plus two and wanted to

be an outreach worker in the project.

But the job went to an illiterate HIV + person, " said the partner of

the deceased. Devinder had stopped commercial sex activity due to

persistent pain. He had stopped concentrating on the Mauli Jagran

project, where he worked for a while. It got him only Rs 1,500 and

was very demanding. The PGI project in question, incidentally, seeks

to study mental functions of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHAs). It

is funded by the National Institute of Health, US.

Devinder was under counselling at the psychiatry department.

Normally, an outreach worker in an HIV project should be a graduate

or XII pass to be able to counsel others and handle paper work, said

a functionary at UT AIDS Control Society.

For Devinder, the job was as much a passion as a requirement. The

last time Devinder met the counsellors in Sector 15, he asked them

why his case was not considered .

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20070317/cth1.htm#4

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum,

Re: /message/7034

It is a sad reflection on the way events get published without

proper verification and are regarded as the truth, the whole truth

and nothing but the truth.

As a co-investigator in the said project, I can testify that the

late Devinder never applied (repeat NEVER APPLIED) for the post that

he reportedly never got! How, then, can one get a job without

applying is something only those who are responsible for reporting

would know.

Ajay Wanchu

e-mail: <awanchu@...>