19 Year old HIV-positive youth ends life on rail track

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HIV-positive youth ends life on rail track

Aditi Tandon. Tribune News Service. Chandigarh, March 15

After holding on to his life for years, Devinder finally gave it up this

morning. From the blood-splattered railway tracks dividing Baltana and Vikas

Nagar, the police recovered mutilated remains of a 19-year-old boy today.

On scouting harder for clues, they discovered a lone key and Rs 15.

It was after many announcements in the area that they found out who the boy was.

He was a commercial sex worker operating from the area. But the police still

doesn’t know he was also a peer educator involved with spreading HIV/AIDS

awareness among men having sex with men (MSMs).

For a few months now, Devinder had not been keeping well. Detected positive for

HIV a year ago, he even joined the HIV/AIDS project being run for homosexuals in

Mauli Jagran.

“He would advocate safe behaviour and condom use among MSMs though he himself

never used preventive measures. We got him tested in Sector 16 General Hospital

and he was positive,†said a counsellor.

With the HIV virus came depression which was already inherent in Devinder’s

life. Orphaned as a two-year-old when his parents died in an accident, he grew

up at Bal Niketan, Sector 2, Panchkula. He had told his friends that he was

first abused as a child by his own teacher and then abused by many of his

clients.

Very recently, he was put on antiretroviral therapy at the PGI.

Counsellors at the Drop-In Centre being run by State AIDS Control Society,

Chandigarh in Sector 15, also say he was sick and had been indicating suicidal

tendencies.

But somewhere in his heart, Devinder had already lost it, says his HIv positive

friend, also a commercial sex worker. “His pain had no outlet. The dearth of

money had also begun to pinch him. He had been asking for money from everyone.

Recently he came to our centre in Mauli Jagran asking for Rs 500 to conduct some

tests.

Devinder had also been asking his rich friends to treat him with chocolates,

fruits and juices as he used to feel weak. Ashwani, a counsellor at Mauli

Jagran, said, “He had asked us to put him on fruits and juices and we had done

that.

But we still feel Devinder should have been kept at the Community Care Centre at

Khuda Alisher. He was admitted there about 15 days ago and was then discharged.

Already under counselling at PGI's Psychiatry Department, Devinder left

Community-Care Centre a few days ago.

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