Stigma and discrimination in India
In India, as elsewhere, AIDS is often seen as “someone else’s problem” – as something that affects people living on the margins of society, whose lifestyles are considered immoral. Even as it moves into the general population, the HIV epidemic is still misunderstood among the Indian public. People living with HIV have faced violent attacks, been rejected by families, spouses and communities, been refused medical treatment, and even, in some reported cases, denied the last rites before they die.72
As well as adding to the suffering of people living with HIV, this discrimination is hindering efforts to prevent new infections. While such strong reactions to HIV and AIDS exist, it is difficult to educate people about how they can avoid infection. AIDS outreach workers and peer-educators have reported harassment,73 and in schools, teachers sometimes face negative reactions from the parents of children that they teach about AIDS:
“When I discussed with my mother about having an AIDS education program, she said, ‘you learn and come home and talk about it in the neighbourhood, they will kick you’. She feels that we should not talk about it.”Female student, Chennai74
Discrimination is also alarmingly common in the health care sector. Negative attitudes from health care staff have generated anxiety and fear among many people living with HIV and AIDS. As a result, many keep their status secret. It is not surprising that for many HIV positive people, AIDS-related fear and anxiety, and at times denial of their HIV status, can be traced to traumatic experiences in health care settings.
"There is an almost hysterical kind of fear ... at all levels, starting from the humblest, the sweeper or the ward boy, up to the heads of departments, which make them pathologically scared of having to deal with an HIV positive patient. Wherever they have an HIV patient, the responses are shameful."75
A 2006 study found that 25% of people living with HIV in India had been refused medical treatment on the basis of their HIV-positive status. It also found strong evidence of stigma in the workplace, with 74% of employees not disclosing their status to their employees for fear of discrimination. Of the 26% who did disclose their status, 10% reported having faced prejudice as a result.76 People in marginalized groups - female sex workers, hijras (transgender) and gay men - are often stigmatised not only because of their HIV status, but also because they belong to socially excluded groups.77
Stigma is made worse by a lack of knowledge about AIDS. Although a high percentage of people have heard about HIV and AIDS in urban areas (94% of men and 83% of women) this is much lower in rural areas where only 77% of men and 50% of women have heard of HIV and AIDS. 78 However, the real challenge lies with ignorance about how HIV is transmitted - for example the majority of men and women in rural areas believe that AIDS can be transmitted by mosquito bites.79 In 2009, NACO carried a population based survey in Nagaland, where it was shown that 72.8% of people surveyed believed HIV could be transmitted by sharing food with someone.80
To learn more about the way that prejudice is hindering the global fight against AIDS, see our Stigma and discrimination page.
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