Chandigarh: PGI fires worker accused of exploiting HIV +ve women

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PGI fires worker accused of exploiting HIV +ve women

By Anilesh Mahajan/TNN

Chandigarh: The report of exploitation of HIV positive women by healthcare

providers rocked the country’s premier Post-Graduate Institute of Medical

Education and Research (PGIMER). In a swift reaction to the expose, authorities

at PGIMER terminated the service

of one of the persons found involved after an internali nquiry.

While informing that an inquiry was on to track down all the accused, Dr S

Prabhakar, HOD, neurology department said, ‘‘We have asked a person associated

with research project to leave.’’ A Delhi-based

tabloid, quoting female victims, said that some technicians and healthcare

providers, including counsellors abused HIV positive women in lieu of providing

them medicine and assisting them in the

hospital.

Investigations by TOI seemed to hint at a nexus of healthcare workers with pimps

to exploit these women who were vulnerable because they lacked support from

their families and were emotionally starved after

acquiring the infection. A victim revealed that a healthcare worker had a

physical relationship with her using a condom. ‘‘He later asked me to arrange

for girls for his friends.’’

Another shocking revelation by sources was that some HIV positive

men-having-sex-with-men (MSM) were being abused in the tricity by the police.

Angry about his exploitation, an MSM, picked up by a policeman and taken to the

outskirts of the city for a physical

relationship, said, “I did not tell him that I was HIV positive. Let him pay for

his misdeed.

Alarmed at such reports, P Kaushalya, president, Positive Women Network, India,

said, ‘‘It is a serious issue. We plan to send a team of counsellors to

Chandigarh to motivate victims to come out in the open and register cases

against the accused.’’ While informing that similar cases poured in from other

states, she said, ‘‘Very often, such women who are exploited by healthcare

workers do not muster courage to stand up against injustice.’’

Stating that some instances of harassment were reported during an independent

study, carried out on HIV positive people, along with social activist Dr Avnish

Jolly, Dr Upneet Lali, deputy director,

correctional administration, Chandigarh said, ‘‘Some women indicated that the

environment for counselling should be congenial, but they never said anything

about physical abuse.’’

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