Madras High Court Raps TNSACS for using woman's pic

August 6, 2009

HC raps AIDS group for using woman's pic

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AgenciesThursday, August 6, 2009

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Wednesday ordered the Tamil Nadu State Aids

Control Authority (TANSACA) to remove all posters in the state having a

photograph of Thilakavathi and her child within a week.

Thilakavathi had petitioned the court claiming the photos were used without

obtaining her consent.

TANSACA had used Thilakavathi and her four-year-old daughter's picture with a

message 'an HIV+ve woman does not necessarily infect her child with AIDS,' in

their posters for creating awareness.

Supporting Thilakavathi, the court said, " The poster has created serious

problems for Thilakavathi and her family and made it difficult for the family to

be a part of society. "

The court asked the State Health Department to evolve rules for using photos

from the web in future.

In their petition, Thilakavathi and her husband Magesh explained the mental

trauma they were facing as a family. They said the entire neighbourhood was

avoiding them due to the poster as it had created a suspicion that she was

suffering from AIDS.

" The neighbours deserted our family, they also kept my daughter away from

playing with their kids fearing infection. Our relatives and other family

members also started suspecting us after the publishing of this poster. I even

decided to end my life due to the trauma faced by this, " claimed Thilakavathi.

Thilakavathi demanded a compensation of Rs1 crore from TANSACA for causing her

the mental harassment.

According to a survey the national adult HIV prevalence in India is

approximately 0.36 per cent, amounting to between 2 and 3.1 million people,

which comes to around 2.5 million people living with HIV and /or AIDS.

More men are HIV positive than women. Nationally, the prevalence rate for adult

females is 0.29 per cent, while for males it is 0.43 per cent. This means that

for every 100 people living with HIV and AIDS, 61 are men and 39 women.

Prevalence is also high in the 15-49 age groups approximately 88.7 per cent of

all infections, indicating AIDS still threatens the cream of society, especially

those in the prime of their working life.

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