Facing HIV/AIDS in India


UNAIDS recently estimated that 5.1 million people in India are living with HIV/AIDS, ranking the country second behind South Africa for the largest number of HIV-infected people. But India's vast population - over one billion - makes the potential trajectory of the spread of HIV devastating.


One mode of transmission for HIV is injecting drug use, which is estimated to be directly responsible for about three per cent of infections in India. This figure, however, only tells part of the story. The role of HIV-positive injecting drug users (IDUs) in spreading the virus is often overlooked. They can pass on HIV through sexual contact either with their partners or with sex workers, who then pass it on to their other clients.
UNODC's projects in India support ongoing government efforts to minimize harm related to the sharing of injecting equipment. What we now find is that drug abuse particularly affects women who have the double burden of caring for the addict, who may be abusive, and providing for the family, says Dr. Manjul Khanna, UNODC project co-ordinator in north-eastern India. We see increasing numbers of young widows whose injecting drug using husbands have died of AIDS, many of whom are HIV-positive as a result of sexual transmission. Often they pass on the virus to their children. UNODC works with these women and IDUs to help them recover their dignity and find acceptance in their communities. The following are stories from the front-line.

Bimola


In the north-east, UNODC devotes time to recruiting and deploying peer educators - people who are former users - to try to attract users into treatment.
During the selection of female peer educators in Manipur, the project made contact with Bimola. She entered an arranged marriage not knowing that her husband was a dependent drug user. Over the years, she had several miscarriages before finding out that her husband was HIV-positive. By then, she was also infected.
After her husband's death, her in-laws threw her out of the house, blaming her for infecting their son. She went to live with her parents and was forced to sleep in the barn with the cows. One day while she was bathing, the villagers accused her of polluting the pond. She was stoned and fled to catch a bus to the city.
Bimola attended the peer educator selection training and broke down during the interview while narrating her story. Initially, she was withdrawn, never smiled and was prone to tears, but after two years as a peer educator, she has a new sense of dignity and self respect.


Abhemo Lotha

UNODC places peer educators in localities where the IDU problem is deemed the worst - in both urban and rural settings. In remote Sannis village, Wokha District of Nagaland, UNODC supports a drop-in centre where Abhemo Lotha, a recovering IDU, works.
Abhemo had a rough start in his job. The village headman and elders did not want him around because they thought that awareness about drug use would spread addiction. One night, Abhemo was beaten up and had to be evacuated and given 10 stitches in his forehead. The NGO to whom he was attached advised him not to go back to Sannis. Despite the warning, he insisted on returning to the village.
Two years later, Abhemo remains a peer educator in Sannis. His biggest source of pride? In the village, they now call me "sir".


Irene

Irene was a sex worker in Aizawl in the North-Eastern State of Mizoram. Her mother threw her out of the house when she discovered that Irene was an IDU. Irene says she joined the flesh trade because she needed money for drugs. She had injecting marks on her arms and legs, but when clients asked whether she injected drugs, she told them that the marks were mosquito bites. At some point, she contracted HIV.
Two years ago, Irene joined one of the rehabilitation centres under the UNODC project, and she now works as a peer educator in Mizoram.
The training I've received under the UNODC project has given me the skills to cope with my problem as well as to help others, she says. I find life more meaningful, and I'm trying to persuade my friends to leave prostitution as well as drugs. It really is possible to live with dignity.