The government estimates about 5.1 million people in India have been infected with the deadly AIDS virus (2001 est.). This is about .91% of the population. It may seem to be a meager amount. African nations which had India’s HIV infection rate of less than one percent of their population a decade ago, are grappling with the AIDS/HIV epidemics of unimaginable proportions. Facts reveal that the tiny African state of Botswana which about a decade ago had a small HIV problem, more than 30% of its adult population is HIV positive.
The figures given above do not provide a just picture of the extent of spread of this disease in our country. Experts say, that the number game was based on feedback from around 700 AIDS surveillance centers across India, which register HIV cases recorded only by government hospitals. Doctors tell that the government refuses to even accept cases reported by private doctors. It is believed that almost 80% of the patients go to private hospitals. The actual number of new HIV infections will be at least four times the government figures. India stands second only to South Africa (with 5.3 million people living with AIDS). The problem in India is much greater than just identifying people with the virus and treating them.
The population of India stands at a staggering 1.1 billion (1,080,264,388 (July 2005 est.)), and still counting- (rate of population growth is 1.4%, that accounts to nearly 29 births per minute). About 39.5% of the population is illiterate (2003 est.). This adds to the predicament; an illiterate here being defined as a person above the age of 15 who is not able to read and write. Nearly 25% of our people (2002 est.) do not earn even the minimal 1$ per day cut off, to be recognized as above the poverty line.
Philippines, has an agro based economy similar to India’s. The fact that India is much better off than the island country is unquestionable. India can be proud of having a stronger and a faster growing economy and India is taking measures to make its presence felt in political arena. India is in the group of nations having their own space program and also one of the few nations having a large nuclear facility. In spite of all these, both India and the Philippines are tagged as ‘developing’ countries. A survey recently conducted in the Philippines show that about 96% of their people were ignorant about AIDS – most of them believe that AIDS can be transmitted through mosquito bites or by sharing the food of someone who is already infected. The survey also found that only 34 per cent of the women and 29 percent of the men would continue to care for a relative infected with the virus (survey results courtesy the AFP). These facts should worry us. Even though we may be more developed than the Philippines, more lterate etc. we are not far ahead the country with respect to AIDS awareness.
There is a widespread misconception in prevalent in India today. Many of the urbanized people feel that this disease is only for the so called uncivilized. Reports divulge that among Indians, AIDS is no longer confined to the high-risk groups, who are believed to have been responsible for its early spread: prostitutes, their customers and users of injected drugs. Nor does it remain a rural disease. Perhaps the most worrisome, the majority of Indians, who are infected, do not know that they have the virus or that they are spreading it. The situation is pitiable.
Another stumbling block in our approach to check its spread is the cost of the therapy we have today. The antiretroviral therapy for first-time patients costs about 25$ a month at a city pharmacy, a hefty amount for any working class Indians. AIDS has tested the fragility of a public-health system financed by less than one percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
Lately, media coverage about the disease has been prominent. I do not feel this is very promising though. There’s still a large chunk of the population (the above mentioned statistics would be a good measure), with almost no media intervention. Newspapers and magazines have articles informing people about AIDS; the radio and television warns people about the harms of the virus; the Internet systems are also cluttered with many messages regarding the same. How do you suppose the group in the ‘illiterate’ and the ‘under the poverty line’ categories have access to such info. Wouldn’t they still be under ignorance even with all this media frenzy? The strategy to fight this menace, against overwhelming odds, needs to by scrutinized and amended.
India has a long, long way to go in scaling up wide-scale access to testing and treatment.
Anup Jayaprakash Nambiar
I have generously used material for this write up from the web sites of the BBC, the World Bank, the Gulf News, the Indian Mirror, the census dept. of the central govt. and the Central Intelligence Agency.
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