According to the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO), “HIV has been treated in India for over 20 years, but not enough attention has been given to the needs of women and children”.
Women living with HIV/AIDS face great challenges: in-laws that refuse to give them their share of property or assets, hostility from society, almost no support networks and, sometimes, HIV+ children of their own. WINS, funded by ActionAid, has organized about 25 women's networks in Chittor district in Andhra Pradesh, where there are about 800 families with at least one HIV-positive family member.
“Infected women contemplate suicide; they must find a way to rebuild their lives," says R. Meera, from WINS. Women living with HIV have ignorance, rejection and destitution as common denominators. If they have support, some fight for their rights; many others accept their tragic fate and just give up when the pressure is too great.
Usually, says Meera, a girl gets married around 14 to a man twice her age. She is not told that her future husband is HIV positive. At the age of 16, she is a widow and may already have two children. She has no home to call her own, no food, no self-esteem. The villagers do not want to talk to her. Being an abandoned woman, she becomes vulnerable to sexual overtures.
If her case comes to be known by an NGO such as WINS, “We approach her and tell her that HIV is not the same as AIDS, that she can live, and live well”, says Meera. She begins to attend the meetings and can assess the possibility of getting back the goods that her mother gave her at the time of her marriage. She has the right to do so, but is afraid to ask for her share; she will not even have her own mother's support.
According to Meera, “To avoid confrontation, she may not claim what is hers, but ask for it to be transferred to her children”. Her in-laws assure her that it will be so, but reality will be otherwise. If she insists and there is a confrontation, her in-laws will see her as demanding and ambitious. She may be told to leave and take her children with her, with no money and no one to turn to.
“There are some lawyers that help women without means”, says Meera. “We try to find good lawyers and cover some costs. A rural dweller cannot fight without outside help.” However, women often risk their lives fighting for their property rights. A case in point is "Vidya's", who married a farmer. A year later, he had died of AIDS, Vidya realized that she was HIV positive, and her in-laws had driven her out of the house. She went to court to claim her property. The district court ruled in her favour and so did the high court. She died in 2008... killed by her in-laws.
Source: hivaidsonline
