HIV positive women turn changemakers

Funded through European Union and Christian Aid, the project aims to contribute to the National Aids Control Programme—III's overall goal of halting and reversing the HIV epidemic in India.

NEW DELHI: For several years, Asha Jat was just a 27-year-old homemaker from Ajmer who had tested HIV positive and was shunned by society. Then four years ago, she was introduced to a health project that helps HIV positive mothers avail medical assistance for themselves and their child. Now Asha is one of the 25 volunteers for the project in Rajasthan's Ajmer district and has facilitated 102 childbirths of HIV positive women in the last four years.

The project titled, Reduction of Parent to Child Transmission of HIV in India: Improving access of Positive Women to Public Health Services (PPTCT), was launched in three states — Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan in 2009. "The project taught me to speak for myself and stand up for my rights," says Asha.

Funded through European Union and Christian Aid, the project aims to contribute to the National Aids Control Programme—III's overall goal of halting and reversing the HIV epidemic in India. This was to be achieved by providing non-stigmatized PPTCT services through networks and volunteers.

According to Asha, before the PPTCT project, women were neither able to access government health services nor opted for hospital deliveries. After the programme began, there has been a definite increase in both accessing services and hospital deliveries. "More importantly there has been a drop in the number of children that are born HIV positive," says Asha, who shared her experiences at a round table meeting in the capital on Tuesday.

District government doctors give lists of HIV positive people to PPTCT volunteers to follow-up. "The project enables a woman or mothers to go to heath services and say "I am HIV+, my child is negative and I need medical assistance," said Akhila Sivdas, executive director, Centre for Advocacy and Research (CFAR) that advocates for informed representation about gender and development issues such as HIV/AIDS, child rights and violence against marginalised groups.

The PPTCT project was implemented by the Positive Women's Network (PWN+), a Tamil Nadu Voluntary Health Association (TNVHA), Arogya Agam, Tamil Nadu and Society for People's Action for Development (SPAD), Karnataka.

According to Padmavati, president (PWN+) Tamil Nadu, the project is making a big difference in tribal districts such as Nilgris, Theni and Coimbatore. "In those places the volunteers are literally the lynchpins of the programme. Every village has a volunteer network and the women, though they don't get an honorarium, are happy to work as volunteers because they have had positive children themselves and they do not want others to go through the same experience".

Citing a highpoint of the programme, Padmavati described how a volunteer secured 30 ration cards (a necessary document for securing various government healthcare facilities) from the Coimbatore collector for the HIV+ women of the area in a single day.

For Gajalaxmi, Sex Workers Collective from Trichi district, the lack of such documents led to sex workers facing discriminations towards their rights and entitlements. "If other women have to make two-three visits to avail of an entitlement, a sex worker would have to go 10-12 times. Even today 50% of them do not succeed in getting their entitlements," she said.

Tracing the journey undertaken by the Christian Aid, EU and four other civil society organizations in extending PPTCT services to positive women, Semeda Steve, programme manager, Christian Aid maintained that since the programme began the response from HIV positive women has gone up from 7% to 93% in intervention areas.

On the occasion a report, Standing Shoulder to Shoulder: Documentation of Best Practices (stories from Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Karnataka), was released by Syeda Hameed, member, Planning Commission
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