Social Justice

KEY POINTS

·         India has brought down the number of new cases and deaths by 27% and 56%, respectively, between 2010 and 2017, which is a significant achievement.

·         Notably, tuberculosis (TB) is the biggest killer of HIV patients and India is now capable of treating over 90% of the notified TB patients for HIV.

·         In spite of all this progress, with 2.1 million cases, India is among the largest burden countries in the world.

Why still a huge burden?

·         Indian laws which legitimizes stigma are one of the reasons for such huge burden.

·         For example, the key populations most affected by HIV in India are

a)     Sex workers (with an HIV prevalence of 2.2%)

b)     Gay men and other men who have sex with men (with an HIV prevalence of 4.3%)

c)      People who inject drugs (with an HIV prevalence of 9.9%)

d)     Transgender people (with an HIV prevalence of 7.2%)

·         Indian laws criminalise homosexuality (sec.377) and several aspects of sex work (Immoral Traffic Act).

·         Fear of prosecution under such laws prevents homosexual men, drug-users and sex workers from seeking HIV screening and treatment.

·         As a result, these groups lag behind average treatment rates, although their requirements are higher.

·         Reducing such stigma against the disease is vital to further the progress and to have an inclusive approach as well.

Way ahead

·         If India is serious about tackling HIV, it must find ways to reach out vulnerable groups, even if changing the law outright is not an option.

·         Sensitising police personnel and educating female sex workers can greatly reduce arbitrary police raids and arrests.

·         Right to health is universal and India must ensure that nobody is left behind.

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A report from the joint programme of UN came with appreciation to the global war against the HIV/AIDS.

                                            According to the report  many countries are on a progressive path in the fight against HIV.From 2010 to 2017,the efforts of the countries are shown by the fact that today 3 out of 4 people  know their status and 21.7 million are getting treatment.

                                                                           According to the report data india brought down the number of new cases and death  by 27% and 56% in 2010 and 2017 respectively. We know that the HIV virus targets the immune system of the effected person and make it so weak that many deadly diseases can easily effect the person and in this case TB is the biggest killer of the AIDS patient worldwide.

                                                                                        However,india has made a significant progress to check this and India is now able to treat over 90% of notified TB patients for HIV and the credit goes to the various steps taken by the indian goverment to spread the awareness and various programme like target to eradicate  TB by 2025 . But despite these effort there are other side of the problem and that need a serious look if india really wants to be called as A HIV free country.

                                                                 The  various hurdles in the progress of such programme are from the social side as well the legislation.people in our country have a very negative outlook to the people who are HIV positive.They have made HIV a social stigma.Many people avoid sharing place with HIV positive people.This kind of behaviour has a negative impact on the mind of people and the various acts and legislation have serious punishments like ipc 377 criminalize the gay sex and as a result of this the people which are at high risk of HIV like the sex worker,drug user, homosexual men Fears the prosecution and don not go for the screening and treatment and as a result they remain behind treatment.

                              Efforts should be to reach these group of people.right to health is universal and should work towards making sure that no one is left behind

                                                          india has brought down HIV incident but more is needed to down to remove the social stigma