How one newspaper thinks positive

[Guest guest]

How one newspaper thinks positive

Positive +, a free bilingual newspaper brought out on a laptop from Asma

Naseer's living room is India's first newspaper on HIV/AIDS.

The paper's commitment to building up a friendship with the reader and its

innovative design have made it popular in and around Chennai where it already

faces a demand for more copies than the 5000 it can afford to print Maragatham,

35, is a daily passenger on the train to Chennai, which stops at Karur, a

textile town, 430 kilometres south of the metropolis. She trades in readymade

garments. Every 15 days, she waits eagerly for a newspaper distributed free on

the trains she boards to get to Karur.

On the Karur-Tiruchirapally lap, the trains are crammed every day with people

coming to work in the big cities. For Maragatham, the eight-page colour

newspaper, Positive +, is interesting because for the first time she is able to

read openly about HIV/AIDS in her own language. " I learn new things about this

dreaded disease with every issue, " she says. After Maragatham has read the

paper, she makes sure that she hands it over to someone else, even students of a

college in Erode, who commute regularly on this train.

But, why would anyone want to start a newspaper in a country that has almost

62,500 registered newspapers, of which about 2,130 are dailies? Furthermore, a

newspaper in the age of Internet newspapers and recession, that deals with just

one subject and which is distributed free of charge seems a losing proposition.

So what made Asma Naseer, the person behind the great idea, take the plunge?

" Well, " she says, " we had been thinking about doing it for several years, but

never really put our minds to it. Now it has at last happened. "

Four months into operations - the first edition was out on December 1, 2008 - it

takes about Rs 50,000 (US$1=Rs 50) to print and distribute each edition of

Positive +, as the advertisements are few.

But money has been trickling in. The Tamil Nadu Aids Control Society has taken

advertisement space for six months, which is worth about Rs 12,000 per edition,

while some shopkeepers and well-wishers are now coming forward with small

advertisements. Several generous friends have also contributed, which includes

an initial private gift of $1000 that enabled the project to take off. " The very

fact that four months into the experiment, we are facing demands of up to 50,000

copies, which we are unable to print at the moment, shows that people find the

paper useful, " says Asma, who is in her thirties. It will need at least Rs

400,000 every month to print and distribute 50,000 copies door-to-door even in

the small area it now covers. That is Asma's dream.

Currently, 5,000 copies of the publication roll out of a small press to be

distributed free in areas like Adayar, Besant Nagar and Thiruvanmiyur in Chennai

by volunteers or newspaper boys for a token sum. Three hundred more copies are

given out on trains in the Karur-Trichy section, mostly among vendors and daily

wage earners.

There is also a free online version at http://positivecommunications.org/

But what's so special about this newspaper, one might ask.

Well, besides the kudos due to a single woman's effort, it is the manner in

which HIV/AIDS is treated that is striking. What immediately impresses people as

they turn the pages is the commitment it displays to building up a friendship

with the reader. And it is bilingual. In fact, the newspaper design is quite

innovative. Both Tamil as well as English material appear on the same

broadsheet, which is then folded into tabloid size, with every reader getting

access to both languages in a single copy.

True, Positive + offers no competition to the 20-odd English and Tamil

newspapers published from Chennai. The newsprint is grainy - it is composed and

designed on a tiny laptop on a dinner table. But one cannot miss the bonhomie it

exudes, issue after issue. And yes, with Tamil Nadu considered an HIV/AIDS

hotspot, it is only appropriate that Chennai should be home to India's first

newspaper on HIV/AIDS.

However, Positive + is not a scaremonger, for it does not churn out dull

statistics on HIV/AIDS, nor does it wave the red flag of fear.

The reassuring phrase is: " It is not our concern how someone contracted HIV. We

are only interested in seeing that the infected person has a life of dignity.

And, in preventing fresh infection. "

In the very first issue, filmmaker and activist Ajit Hari, the managing editor

of Positive +, put it this way: " Everyone - simply everyone - who is infected

has just one refrain, 'If only I knew'. "

With concerted nation-wide awareness campaigns, most people have heard of

HIV/AIDS. But knowing about AIDS, coping with HIV, dealing with the associated

trauma - that is an entirely different ball game, Asma points out.

" Even I, who thought of myself as a fairly intelligent, educated, well read and

aware person, was surprised by how little I actually knew about HIV/AIDS and how

it actually affects lives, " explains Ajit.

Yes, the alerts are all there in the paper. Little boxes containing the India

and state figures of the affected; the long AIDS guide column; the hotlines to

help; and the addresses of hospitals, blood banks, counselling centres, testing

centres, ART centres and positive networks. It contains information about

community care centres and outreach programmes, as well.

From publisher-editor Asma's desk comes a little note. In a recent issue, it was

titled boldly, 'My AIDS Story'. In a chatty style, it took the reader through a

journalist's first encounter with HIV/AIDS and the typical warnings from friends

and family, " Oh! You were covering an AIDS assignment...wash your hands, change

your clothes... "

The paper deals with primary questions, such as 'So, what is AIDS?' and throws

light on various aspects of the condition: that there is no disease called AIDS

- that it is only a syndrome of immunity breakdown; that it can spread only in

four ways, and certainly not through mosquito bites; that it can be contained;

that it can certainly be prevented; that it can be lived with; and that it can

even be funny!

Week after week, the pages narrate the tales - of HIV-positive Padmavathy, who

is president of Tamil Nadu Network of Positive People; of Anandy's bold

initiative (she sought an HIV test before an arranged marriage), making the

reader believe there is hope and that it is always better to be safe than sorry.

The paper captures the story of India's tryst with AIDS and wise words from

respected community leaders.

An early edition carried Mother 's thoughts on AIDS. On one cover there

was a message from the Archbishop of Madras, Rev A M Chinnappa, on the occasion

of Christmas, and from Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev on Pongal. There is sometimes

anecdotal caution against stigma - a little story about of Magdalene, with

Jesus telling people, " Let one without sin cast the first stone " . One recent

edition had the picture of the most powerful man in the US, President Barack

Obama and the First Lady, taking the HIV test.

" There are 2.44 million HIV stories from India to write about, " Ajit says. " Each

story is a lesson in what not to do, how not to let it happen to you. "

(According to National AIDS Control Organisation data, there are 2.44 million

HIV-infected people in India.)

Inspiration needed, anyone? Take it from Asma, Ajit and their Positive +

attitude.

Women's Feature Service, April 2009

http://www.morungexpress.com/analysis/26128.html