Bangalore Press Conference
Report of Press Conference
Bangalore
8 December 2008
The Law Ministry recently sent back the HIV/AIDS Bill to National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), with substantial changes. With the International Human Rights Day approaching, it was seen fit by the National Coalition on HIV/AIDS Bill (South Region) and the HIV/AIDS forum members from Bangalore to hold a press conference to protest these changes and demand the restoration and tabling of the original HIV/AIDS Bill in the upcoming parliament session.
Raman Chawla, Advocacy Officer with Lawyers Collective HIV/AIDS Unit and a panelist for the day, revealed that important chapters of the Bill have been deleted. He informed all present that the chapter on access to treatment containing provisions on right to health of People Living with HIV (PLHIV) and access to ARVs and Opportunistic Infection drugs has been removed. The Law Ministry has also pulled out the Chapter on promotion of risk reduction strategies which provide immunity to both provider and receiver of targeted intervention programmes (condom distribution, needle syringe exchange) which are central to the National AIDS Control Programme but are criminalized under various Indian laws.
Saroja, the President of Karnataka Network of Positive People (KNP+) testified that PLHIVs still face widespread discrimination in all spheres of life. She said that the problem is acute with vulnerable communities like Men Having Sex with Men, Sex workers and Injecting Drug Users. She stressed upon the need for an anti-discrimination law in our country to provide legal recourse to PLHIVs who face discrimination in their everyday life. Unfortunately, the diluting of the Prohibition of Discrimination by the Law Ministry limits the scope of addressing these concerns.
Focus was drawn by Raman to newly introduced provisions like Surveillance and Rehabilitation and Health Officer which aims at introducing mandatory testing and tracing of people infected and affected by HIV and AIDS. Such measures, he said, will infringe the rights of HIV positive persons and drive the epidemic underground.
Thereafter, Anusooya and Amudha representing HIV positive networks stressed on the importance of availability and affordability of HIV drugs and negative implications of the new provisions proposed by the Law Ministry on the community.
Press meet was concluded by Christy Abraham of Action Aid stressing the need for a rights based approach to curb the epidemic. She called for support of the media to push the government to table the original bill in the upcoming session of parliament.
Below are the links of the press coverage of the event.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Bangalore/Revised_HIV_Bill_is_...