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Despite the lack of coverage, and the reticence of the politicians, my guess of a 1000 AIDS cases in New Delhi, might reflect that India is doing a good job of keeping the people informed about the ‘new’ virus spreading in India. In the first stages of my research I was convinced that AIDS was a problem transmitted by the truck drivers to the sex workers. Knowing that New Delhi has a higher literacy rate, per capita rates of 2.5 times the national average, and has experienced a decline in unemployment rate, I expected that New Delhi was in no danger, and wondered how I was going to talk about a problem that did not really exist. Mentally, I contributed all the cases to the few sex workers and truck drivers that reside in the outskirts of the city. Delhi is populated by the middle and the upper class, and I was convinced that this was a disease that discriminated based on class and occupation. However, I would have never guessed that the number I had approximated will increase by 1,759 cases in the matter of thirteen months. What the newspapers failed to report, what the government is failing to see is that India is on the brink of an outbreak. Currently, roughly 5.134 million people are HIV + in India as estimated by NACO, the second largest number of cases after South Africa. While India ignores HIV, the virus is silently creeping into every walk of Indian life. India has no plan of action for the time when the vast numbers of HIV+ people turn into AIDS cases. People who are HIV+ or have AIDS are hard to approach as they still face considerable stigma and discrimination in areas ranging from employment to housing, to health care. Laws such as the ten year sentence for homosexuality help support and maintain the intolerance directed towards high risk group for AIDS. The government is so hesitant to admit that India has a problem that it accused Bill Gates of spreading ‘needless hysteria’ when a study sponsored by him revealed that India may have around 25 million HIV+ cases by the year 2010. (Hardig, Luke) Due to the large population even a 0.1% increase in HIV prevalence will increase the estimated number of people living with HIV by over half a million. (History of HIV/AIDS cases in India) Unless the magnitude of the problem is recognized by the government, the courts, and the society as a whole, India will prove to be HIV’s most successful breeding ground |
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