West Bengal: Buladi campaign fallen flat

[Guest guest]

Buladi campaign comes a cropper

Statesman News Service

TAMLUK, July 8: The litany of woes related to HIV/AIDS continues

unabated in the rural fringes of West Bengal. Though, the state

health department often claims that its AIDS awareness mascot, Buladi

has been a success, but her campaign seems to have fallen flat even

in the urban areas of Midnapore East district with the victims of the

deadly disease being socially ostracised.

This was proven recently, when a 27-year old woman and her family

were ostracised by their neighbours at their village near Kolaghat

after she tested HIV positive.

This comes at a time when one of the themes of Global AIDS Week of

Action (GAWA) in India for this year includes the lack of progress on

the HIV Bill 2006. In this regard, the Bengal Network of People

Living with HIV/AIDS (BNP+), a state-level network run by and for

people living with HIV/AIDS in West Bengal has teamed up with Human

Right Law Networks (HRLN) to hasten ratifying the HIV Bill by taking

public opinions through seminars and meeting across the state.

According to the family members, the victim, mother of a seven-year-

old daughter, was diagnosed to have been infected three months ago

and underwent treatment for about 75 days at the Calcutta Medical

College and Hospital. She returned home to her parents' house near

the Kolaghat Thermal Power station on 30 June and was socially

ostracised by the neighbours.

The victim frequently suffered from diarrhoea along with fever for

the last few months and she was admitted to the Calcutta Medical

College and Hospital. Her blood was examined at the School of

Tropical and Medicine where she tested HIV positive.

" When she was detected as an HIV positive patient, the doctors

advised her to return home and take nutritious food by which she

would be cured. As the hospital refused to give further treatment to

her, we brought her home but after learning details of the disease,

we think that she should not be released by the hospital, " the

victim's husband, who is a contract worker and stays at Haldia said.

The victim's parents have also complained that the child is being

prevented from attending school by the villagers and the family has

to rely on relatives to purchase their daily provisions.

They are even prevented from using the pond outside their home and

none of their neighbours speak to them or visit them.

When asked about the matter, the chief medical officer of health Mr

Rabi Kinkar Nayek said: " After hearing about the incident, I had sent

my block medical officer of health to the victim's house and asked

him to submit a report to me. In the meantime, he has organised a

meeting there and tried to motivate the people so that they don't

socially ostracise the family further " .

Mr Tarit Chakraborty, president of Bengal Network said, " I have

collected the details of the case and asked the president of our

local unit to establish communication with the victim. We will try

our best to ensure that the victim can lead a normal life and get

proper treatment and facilities from the health department. "

http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?

clid=23 & theme= & usrsess=1 & id=212429