Celebrating the Delhi High Court Judgment

[Guest guest]

[Editors comment: It seems, the “good time Charlie’s” are in action! It seems,

for them the flavour of the month is sexual minorities!.

A substantial number of people who are not sexual minorities, yet motivated by a

conviction for equality for all, fought for repealing Section 377 of the IPC.

Anjali Gopalan of Naz foundation is the one who went to the court to seek

changes in section 377.

Unfortunately, when UNAIDS called for the meeting to congratulate the it was a

hush hush meeting of selected few. Celebrating the Delhi High Court Judgment is

a celebration of who believe in the equality of human being. If a few are trying

to usurp this victory as their victory, it is a sad day for the concept of human

equality]. At least, it should have been a celebration of all from the civil

society!]

________________________

Dr.Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS and Under Secretary-General of

the United nations, on Friday the 9th of October, 2009, congratulated Injdia's

sexual minorities for the unity and solidarity they showed in successfully

fighting -- and winning their case against the anti-sodomy statutes (Section 377

of the IPC). He commended the judgment of the Delhi High Court and hoped that

the Supreme Court would maintain the progressive trend that was shown by the

Delhi High Court.

Over 200 of Delhi's working class kothis, male prostitutes, hijras and lesbians

were joined by MSM representatives from Bengal, South India and West India at

the Constitution Club on Rafi Marg in Delhi's central district. Celebrating the

Delhi High Court judgment were all representatives of the UN family and from the

PEPFAR and American civil society, the UN Country Coordinator (UCC) in India,

Dr. Gilks, the first Director-General of NACO, Prasada Rao and the head

of the Lok Sabha Parliamentary Forum on HIV/AIDS, Fernandes..

Dr.Michel said that laws that discriminated against minoirites, women and

children must be done away with if health facilities had to be accessed by these

populations in a fair and equitable manner. He said that over 80 countries still

had laws criminalising same sex behavior and the UN family was against these

laws on grounds of human rights and rights to health and life. He urged them to

follow India's example where disaparate communities had come together to fight

the law in the Courts and get them struck down. He also complimented Nepal for

its progressive laws on same-sex behavior.

Dr. Gilks, UNAIDS Country Coordinator, in India, said now proper health

facilities would be given to MSM and hijras as the government hospitals would be

able to have operational guidelines for oral and anal STIs in all public

hospitals. He commended NACO for putting these guidelines in place in NACP III

and hoped that NACO would now offer lubricants along with condoms for anal sex

to MSM/hijras and sex workers. A condom without lubricant was useless if given

to MSM as they tore and made them vulnerable to STIs and HIV.

Prasada Rao, IAS and the first  Director-General of NACO to have pioneered the

MSM programs said " we have come a long way from those days in late 1999 when

hotels in Delhi refused to sllow a conference for homosexuals and 15 of them had

to come under various other reasons to meet and disperse the same day. Since

then, i am glad that the communitiy has fought for its rights and made itself

highly visible in our social landscape " . He hoped that with the Delhi High Court

judgement, they would feel free to access health facilities and thus avoid being

infected by STIs or HIV.

Fernandes, Congress Party leader and head of the Parliamentary Forum on

HIV/AIDS, said the government had taken a firm decision not to oppose the Delhi

High Court judgment and to " help the Supreme Court to reach an appropriate

judgment in the matter and reach an amicable solution that was just, equitable

and fair to all citizens of India " . He said the " reading down " of Sectioj 377

would make to easy to pass many other laws that would affect people with

HIV/AIDS and help them lead a dignified life. Besides, he said laws that

discriminated against certain citizens on grounds of sexaulity, class, creed

were to be frowned upon " . He said his Party understood that basic fact and

congratuted Indian homosexual and sexual minoruity communities in standing

united in fighting Section 377.

Ashok Row Kavi, Technical Officer for Sexual Minorities in India, UNAIDS,

facilitated and moderated the discussion which was simultaneously translated

into Hindi for over 200 of the poor working class kothis, male prostitutes,

lesbians and hijras who had come from all parts of Delhi. He pointed out in his

introduction that in the 105 page judgment of the Delhi High Court delivered on

July 2, 2009, there were exactly three paragraphs on HIV and the rest was an

impressive documents on Constitutional morality and the individuals right to

privacy, freedom and right to sexual orientation and rights.

He said it mentioned Jawaharlal Nehru's vision of an inclusive society that

would make India truly democratic.

Special thanks need to said to Manohar Evavarthi, Arif Zafar, Aninydya Hazra,

Rajarshi Chakravorty, Aditya Bandopadhyaya, Tripti Tandon, Mahesh- for

attending. Special thanks to Rahul Singh for the simultaneous translation of

speeches for the city's non-English speaking population. Thanks to Roopika and

to Sunny for mobilising Kothis from the trans-jamuna area. To all the hijra

deras who sent in representatives despite the Divali 'Mangti " season on in full

swing, lesbians from the Jama Masjid area who made their presence felt for the

first time (Ajmeri-Bibi, Adaab Ho), male prstitutes led by Rohan and Naushad who

brought in a largew contingent.

Thanks to Hari Ghai and Uphaar Pramanik from UNAIDS office who stood at the

gates and saw that nobody was turned back because they were not " well dressed "

by the watchmen and for Nalini Fernandes and Lizzy Mathews from the central

office for making arrangements to see that everyone was treated with dignity and

equity. Speicla mention must be made of Zainab Nedou for seeing that TV crews

and reporters did not ask stupid questions that were homophobic (thought some

did).

Special love to my gay students from St.s led by Udit Walia for going to

every sex site possible and informing gay men,  male prsituttes and their women

friends about the meeting with Dr.Michel Sidide who would like to thank

everybody in person but is rushing around trying to keep up the momentum for

UNAIDS with the world recession leading to shrinkage of funds for all programs.

Ashok Row Kavi

Delhi

E-MAIL: <asha47@...>

[Guest guest]

 

Re: /message/10820

[AIDS INDAIA Editor re-iterates the statement: Celebrating the Delhi High Court

Judgment is a celebration for all who believe in the equality of human being. If

a few are trying to usurp this victory as their victory, it is a sad day for the

concept of human equality and equity. It should have been a celebration of all

from the civil society, a celebration of all who believe in human dignity and

equality.

However, AIDS INDIA e FORUM comments the ‘straight’ forwardness and willingness

for public dialogue of Ashok Row Kavi. Most of his colleagues with the UN

agencies do not have the moral conviction or courage to voice their opinion in

public]

______________________

Dear FORUM,

Just to clarify, Anjali Gopalan's NGO, the Naz Foundation (India) was very much

present there. The meeting was organised for MSM/TG groups and all networks and

focal gate-keepers were invited.

However, nobody was named as both Lawyers Collective and Naz India wanted the

whole community to be congratulated without any group being named at the

meeting. All references and awards to groups who filed or fought the opposing

Section 377 were removed in deference to their wishes.

Anybody saying it was " hush-hush " is only being out of touch with the grass

roots workers and organisations. More than 40 groups were present and many more

who did not represent anybody but themselves.

All UN member were represented and cards were sent to everybody in the

development sector. More than 200 cards were sent out. If you want an electronic

one of the same can be forwarded to you.

One sincerely hopes the editor or AIDS India checked out facts before making

such an allegation. It smacks of witch hunting.

warm regards

Ashok Row Kavi

UNAIDS

Delhi

E-MAIL: <arowkavi@...>

[Guest guest]

Dear FORUM,

Re: /message/10820

It is 'victory' for all of us .

It is , however,just the beginning of the long journey with may more hurdles to

cross.

'SITORON SE AAGE JAHAN AUR BHI HAIN; ABHI ZINDAGI KE IMTIHAN AUR BHEE HAIN'!!

Let us devote our time and energy for faciltation of those constructive

pursuits.

Thanks and kudos to THE Ashok Row Kavi.

Best wishes,

Rajesh Gopal.

Dr. Rajesh Gopal,MD

Gujarat State AIDS Control Society (GSACS),

Gujarat State Council for Blood Transfusion(GSCBT),

Block O/1 Block,New Mental Hospital (NMH) Complex,

Opposite National Institute of Occupational Health (NIOH),

Meghaninagar, Ahmedabad,   Gujarat,  India. PIN  380016

Phone(O)91-79-22680211--12--13,22685210 Facsimile 91-79-22680214

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum,

Re: /message/10820

It has been twenty-seven years since the discovery of the AIDS retrovirus, and

if we still are hush -hush about it at UN organizations, it is a very sad state

of affairs.

I can still remember Ms Anjali Gopalan sitting cross-legged on the floor of a

small apartment in New York city in her salwar-kameez, blasting some Dutch UN

guy, for allowing HIV women to breast-feed children, since the chances of the

child surviving was slim without milk, in 'so-called' THIRD WORLD countries.

Thank you,

Sincerely,

Priyadarshi Datta, PhD, PLWA

e-mail: <pdatta@...>

[Guest guest]

Dear AIDS India readers,

/message/10820

Anurada Banerjee and Aslam Khaled from Naz Foundation(India) were very much

present. If I did not mention them it is because in my hurry NOT to name

individual NGOs I missed their names (I still do not know their complete names).

I still reiterate that though the judgment was uniequivocally for equality and

equity for ALL Indians, it was a particularly significant victory for MSM/TG;

the immediate aftermath being the release of oral/anal STI operational

guidelines.

To show that the judgment would benefit ALL sections of indian society. I

pointed out to the audience that the 105 page judgment had only three paragraphs

on HIV/AIDS and the rest was about Constititional morality. personal privacy and

liberty to practice one's sexual orientation and gender identity.

This was because certain groups are saying that Naz Foundation got this victory

only because of the affiidavit of NACO about HIV/AIDS and lack of accessability

of MSM to health services.

I wished to clarify that UNAIDS backed every sentence of my speech and thus

proved that were were making great efforts to be inclusive.

There are a little over 135 MSM TI interventions by NACO all over the country

and 49 are run by specific MSM/TG CBOs. Not all could be invited to say the

least and definately not all of civil society which had a separate meeting the

day before at the UNDP hall in Delhi.

That meeting with HIV+ groups also had the presence of Naz India and many others

but very few specific MSM/TG CBOs or representatives.I can send you the

attendance register of that meeting too to prove my point.

I still wish to stress that the editor is wrong in saying this was a " hush-hush "

affair and strongly protest that I was party to any such effort.

Regards

Ashok Row Kavi 

E-MAIL: <arowkavi@...>