Numbers have faces - Deepika Singh

According to the World Health Organization, if 1% of the population contracts a disease, it is then called an EPIDEMIC. According to MSACS ( Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society) In Pune, from Jan to Oct 2007-more than 18,000 people got themselves tested for HIV in Government testing centres, and 12.27% tested positive. And this figure does not include those who are unaware about their status,people living with HIV and those who died because of HIV. 12.27% of those people who got tested at Government Centres, were handed out positive HIV test reports. Imagine how many people had to take home a positive HIV report. Imagine how many had to turn to their family members and tell them about their HIV status-had to face a hostile society where people living with HIV are not only stigmatized but also discriminated against.

12.27% of a certain group of people may just be a number to us. But THESE NUMBERS HAVE FACES. Each person who makes these numbers has a story to tell us. This includes those who will not be allowed to stay in their joint families because of their positive status. There are some whose kids will not be allowed to study in schools, some of them will not even disclose this information to their near and dear ones and they will not take adequate steps to prevent the spread of diease and to improve their own situation.

We at Wake Up Pune and Take10! believe that the whole reason HIV is so widespread is because of SILENCE. We don’t talk about HIV enough. We don’t take the necessary steps to educate ourselves about the disease. How difficult it is for us to google ‘HIV and Prevention’??? Is it so hard to talk about HIV with our friends and families??? Why are we so afraid to talk about HIV and AIDS???

All this Silence is only increasing our IGNORANCE. If we don’t talk about it, and if we don’t think about it-it will not run away. HIV is here and is staring straight into our eyes. And if we close our eyes and feign ignorance it will not simply fade away, but we will be unaware of what it will do next.

Ignorance and silence leads to FEAR. Why are we afraid of the dark??? Because we don’t know what lies ahead. We don’t know what HIV can do to us, we don’t know how to protect ourselves and our loved ones. And because we don’t know how it spreads we just accept all the myths and wrong information about HIV and AIDS which is what is making our society so judgemental about all this.

And because of fear, there is STIGMA. HIV is a topic not spoken about, a taboo not to be discussed and people Living with HIV and AIDS are not given the honor and dignity that they should command as human beings.
Stigma leads to DISCRIMINATION. Why are people living with HIV and AIDS not allowed to live normal lives?? Why are pregnant HIV positive women being forced to abort their child-does she not have the choice to have a baby?? Why is she giving birth outside hospitals?? Why are doctors not treating HIV positive patients?? Why are HIV positive people thown out of communities, forced to leave their homes, their jobs, their lives?? Why are we doing this to them??

Discrimination is what makes a person living with HIV and AIDS to be silent about his/her condition. SILENCE-we come back to it. Silence on the part of the person living with HIV and Aids. He/she does not come out of the closet and tell people about their condition. There is lack of support from the society which is what leads to fear among them-which is very bad for them as it aggravates their condition.
This STIGMA CHAKRA needs to broken. this silence - ignorance - fear - stigma - discrimination - silence...

BREAK THE CHAKRA. LEARN ABOUT HIV and AIDS, TALK ABOUT IT and SUPPORT education,awareness and positive living.

- Deepika Singh is the coordinator of The Bootcamp Workshop team at the Take10! Campaign