India must support harm reduction at the forthcoming CND

[Guest guest]

Subject: India must support harm reduction at the forthcoming CND

6th March 2009/ Adv/druguse/t/166/09

 

Hon’ble Manmohan Singh

Prime Minister of India

 

Hon’ble Pranab Mukherjee

Minister for Finance

 

Hon’ble P. Chidambaram

Minister for Home Affairs

 

Hon’ble A. Ramadoss

Minister for Health and Family Welfare

 

Hon’ble Meira Kumar

Minster for Social Justice and Empowerment

 

Re: India must support harm reduction at the forthcoming UNGASS on Drugs

 

Your Excellencies,

 

It has come to our knowledge that the Government of India has taken a stand

against 'harm reduction' at negotiations leading up to United Nations General

Assembly Special Session on Drugs (UNGASS on Drugs), in Vienna, March 2009. We

are writing to request that you 'rectify' this position, which is incorrect and

inconsistent with our national policy.

Harm reduction services, notably, provision of sterile needles and syringes and

opiate substitution are known to reduce transmission of HIV and other blood

borne infections among people who inject drugs.

The Government of India endorses harm reduction as an important public health

strategy in the National AIDS Prevention and Control Policy, 2002 (para 5.10)

and encourages NGOs to provide harm reduction measures to injecting drug users

through “targeted interventions†under the National AIDS Control Programme,

Phase III (2007-2012).

In June 2008, the Expenditure Finance Committee approved Buprenorphine

substitution for prevention of HIV among people who use drugs. Currently, there

are 200 needle syringe programs and 60 oral substitution clinics running

successfully under the aegis of the Ministry of Health.

Despite official policy and program, Indian delegates in Vienna are withholding

support from harm reduction. In February, representative(s) from India ’s

permanent mission to Vienna denied the existence of programs to deliver sterile

needle syringes. Disregarding communication from the Secretary, Department of

AIDS Control, Ministry of Health, on 2nd March, India voted against the

inclusion of harm reduction in the draft political declaration.

Recently, the delegation preparing for the 52nd session of Commission on

Narcotic Drugs (CND), which includes officials from the Department of Revenue,

Ministry of Finance, the Narcotics Control Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs and

the National Institute for Social Defense, Ministry of Social Justice and

Empowerment met to discuss the official position on harm reduction. The outcome

of this meeting is not known yet; we apprehend that harm reduction will be

rejected.

 

As you know, drug control is a multi – agency task to be realized through

co-ordination. It is unacceptable for the policy approach of one government

department to be overridden and ignored, especially at international fora such

as the CND.

 

The world over, including in India, efforts to minimse drug related harms such

as transmission of HIV and blood borne infections  constitute an important

strategy in the response to drugs.

International agencies - UNAIDS, WHO and the Global Fund to fight AIDS,

Tuberculosis and Malaria have all called on delegates to the CND to support harm

reduction, as it is essential to the fight against AIDS (Letters No. EXO/MB/cr

and OED/MK.AB.GMD/06.02.09-HARM REDUCTION to the Chair, CND). It is important

that India does not backtrack on its commitment to protect health and save

lives.

We request you to intervene in the process and instruct the Indian delegation

not to object to harm reduction in the political declaration. We also urge you

to ensure that India takes a unified and clear stand in support of health, human

rights and harm reduction at the UNGASS in Vienna .

 

Your's sincerely,

 

Anand Grover

Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit

 

Luke Samson

Indian Harm Reduction Network

L.Deepak Singh

Manipur Network of People living with HIV/AIDS

Dr. Venkatesan Chakrapani

Indian Network of People Living with HIV

Raju Rajkumar Singh

SHARAN

Eldred Tellis

Sankalp Rehabilitation Trust

Y. Shasikumar Singh

SASO

V. Karthi Krishnan

Hoper's Foundation

 

Loon Gangte

Delhi Network of Positive People

Tripti Tandon

e-mail: <tripti.tandon@...>