I have to recommend this blog. Lives in Focus blogs around issues of those vulnerable or living with HIV/ AIDS. In their own words – “Using video, audio and photographs, this website presents the voices of those who are rarely given space or time in traditional news media.”
The way HIV/ AIDS is handled by the government is that all attention is diverted towards prevention and awareness. Very little is done to improve the lives and living conditions of those living with HIV/ AIDS. The support structures in our healthcare systems are so weak, that a family cannot even access a counselor in desperate times. Young children whose parents have HIV/ AIDS are often discriminated against, and not allowed to access services. Women and men are thrown out of their own homes. Families struggle with the enormity of the problem, even as they try and pull together some financial resources to meet the increasingly expensive drugs and healthcare. All this – for an infection that cannot be reversed, and a disease that cannot be cured.
The HIV/ AIDS issue in India is huge. It’s already reflected in discrimination at the workplace and society at large. However – given the number of Indias we seem to live in, the issue still hasn’t been given enough prominence.
For starters – an excellent post on the blog which has STUNNING visuals that “depict the lives of people from high-risk groups in India. Compared to our previous images, these are all in black-and-white and shot with film rather than a digital camera. The photos are of prostitutes, dancers, truckers and hijras, or eunuchs, who are commercial sex workers.”
Posted on February 1st, 2006 by Neha Viswanathan
Filed under: Random Links
nice post. i recommend the book “positive lives” by kalpana jain. it has some wonderful insights from a similar angle.
nice post neha…the kind that made me feel all warm inside :o)
this is exactly why there is a problem — the labelling of them. treat them well, treat them like crap , watever it is that people do — they end up branding people with AIDS as a different species that need some kind of special attention. people will never come to terms with the the fact that common cold and AIDS are no different and there will definitely be more such posts.
Sudha: People living with HIV/ AIDS are not the same as people living with the cold. Most of them either live or are shunted to the margins of society. They do need better services. Anti-Retro Viral Treatment is expensive, and given the change in patent laws – the costs are shooting through the roof.
You don’t have to treat them differently. But you do have to ensure that they are able to access whatever it is that they need to access. We’re not talking sympathy here – no.. not even empathy – but addressing their right to a certain service.
let me just say that i ignored the futility of my previous comment in a very weak moment of annoyance at commercialism of such stuff. its not that i am still tat kid that considered certain things were beyond commercialism. its just that a few past entities made it a little difficult for me to digest it at first. your reply is very much out of context. but everyone has a right to their own perspective. i am probably obliged to explain mine since i came out with the comment in the first place, but the whole thing tires me more than a week long flu, so just label me a squirt and let it go, please.