Re: Vadodara: Training to sensitise cops on AIDS

[Guest guest]

Dear forum,

Re: Training to sensitise cops on AIDS. We would like to have this type of

sensitization workshop for police men and jail inmates. Can we get the modules

and other details?

Thanks

Dr Neena Sablok

Medical officer

Ranbaxy community health care society

Paonta sahib, Himachal Pradesh

e-mail: <neena.sablok@...>

[Guest guest]

Re: Vadodara: Training to sensitise cops on AIDS

/message/7505

The news that Gujarat State AIDS Control Society is running sensitisation

programmes with police personnel was welcome news indeed. But on closer reading,

it seems that the contents of these sensitisation programmes have not been

designed to promote rights-based and non-stigmatising responses to HIV/AIDS.

In fact, they are more likely to undermine these key public health priorities.

The details given of the GCACS sensitisation programme emphasise that police are

`exposed more to core groups like men having sex with me and Female Sex Workers

(FSWs) while on duty'.

Given the transmission routes of HIV/AIDS, it does not seem likely that police

are especially vulnerable to exposure to HIV/AIDS while interacting with sex

workers or MSM while on duty.

We might ask, for example, whether sensitisation about safety regarding

Hepatitis B, is also given to police? This approach to sensitisation seems to be

about protecting police of the `dangers' posed by sex workers and MSM and

unnecessarily stigmatises and marginalises these groups.

We have worked with sex workers and men who have sex with men in India, and we

feel that in general, police are actually more of a danger to sex workers and

men who have sex with men than vice versa.

It is well established that people's vulnerability to HIV/AIDS is deeply related

to their security and their control over their lives. The most important issue

for the police to consider in relation to HIV is that police repression of sex

workers and MSM causes social disruption and marginalisation, further increasing

their vulnerability to HIV.

The type of sensitisation most needed for police personnel is participatory

training in a non-judgemental, human rights approach, which emphasises the

police's duty to protect all citizens, including sex workers and MSM. The

distinction between prostitution and

trafficking, and the effects of raids and rescues should be discussed, and the

fact that there are much more urgent issues for the police to tackle than

repression of MSM.

We must think carefully about the design of sensitisation programmes, so that

they promote respect, inclusion, de-stigmatisation and support of all people and

groups affected by HIV/AIDS.

Anuprita Shukla, Researcher, Maharashtra

Flora Cornish, Glasgow Caledonian University, UK

e-mail: <floracornish@...>