an anthology of stories relating to HIV from sixteen well-known Indian writers, was launched in the country in early August. Published in collaboration with Avahan, the India AIDS initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the book is an assortment of case studies, narratives, anecdotes and snapshots from across the country, all linked by their examination of the effects of HIV on their lives and their country. 

Economist Amartya Sen's words "human ordeals thrive on ignorance" in the foreword sum up one of the critical issues plaguing HIV in the country -- that both the lack of information and abundance of misinformation are at the heart of the continuing discrimination faced by positive persons both in terms of access to health care and social exploitation and victimization which denies them and their families even basic human rights. In a tongue-in-cheek observation, to drive home this particular difficulty of misinformation, Sen refers to the bloated National Intelligence Estimates provided by the CIA of the 20-25 million AIDS cases in India by 2010 stating "how easily an organization dedicated to intelligence can fail to give much evidence of it." Subsequently, even the United Nation's five million estimate of HIV/AIDS cases in India was halved, last year, to between 2 and 3 million cases in the country.  

The essays, case studies, anecdotes, narratives, each in the authors' own genres, swing in turn from being touching to tortured, tragic to beautiful, poignant to pragmatic, as the writers expose the layers and lives of the real people behind the societal stereotypes of sex workers, truck drivers, the police, homosexuals, transgenders and most of all, positive persons. It brings to life the day-to-day struggles of people who have been marginalized by virtue of their profession or their sexual orientation, with the positive status only heightening their vulnerability further. And even as it gives a face and identity to these faceless millions and their families, taking us through their travails and tribulations, it also scratches the surface to expose the complexities that the HIV status brings with it. 

Toku's struggle - a physician who cares for AIDS patients - traverses legal corridors as we hear of his fight for the right to confidentiality of HIV test results - his own. What makes this story particularly important is that legal battles surrounding rights of positive persons are bound to be few and far between simply because often the high risk groups are also the ones that already inhabit the peripheries of the social system and HIV only entrenches this isolation. Toku's experience also exposes the convoluted interpretation of the right to privacy of an AIDS patient, which leads to a judgement denying positive persons the right to marry. While the judgement was dismissed in 2002, it reveals the limited avenues for redressal.

And then there is William Dalrymple's agonizing revelation of Rani's complete denial of her positive status as she plans a quiet farm life for herself and her family away from her profession, with the savings she has managed so far. Salman Rushdie's characteristic flair is evident in the equally flamboyant subject of his narrative -- Laxmi the "first drag queen of Mumbai" -- as well as a lucid account of the sub culture of the hijras, which even today try and blend their traditional roles of harbingers of good fortune with the modern day perils of their risky lifestyle. And there is "Soon." the faceless protagonist of Vikram Seth's narrative. In a candid admission of his own fears and subsequent cautiousness, Seth uses a poem he wrote in the 1980s amidst an atmosphere of fear of this "new disease called AIDS" and the accompanying lack of understanding, prejudices and myths surrounding the virus. The poem itself and the recollection of the times is a stunning vignette of the hopelessness, love and grief in an era dominated by the absence of an effective treatment for the virus.

There is the arbitrary interpretation of the Bombay Police Act that punishes indecency in public, leaving sex workers like Ashok and Savitha at the mercy of these law-enforcers and upholders of public decency, thereby paying the price for their "immorality" by frequent rape. Such relationships exist within the MSM (men who have sex with men) community as well - between the kothis and panthis as the former fulfil the sexual roles of women - and in this rather unequal relationship is embedded the heartrending compromise where being paid for sex becomes the parameter for ones' desirability.

As the writers travel across the country to hear individuals' stories, universal in their spiral of exploitation and vulnerability, they help unravel the subtle differences between each of these groups, whether it is the transsexuals, transvestites and transgenders; the MSM community who consider themselves different from the gay community; or the contexts governing the sex workers in different parts of the country; the IDUs and their vulnerability.  

With just a little over six percent of the 2.5 million infected persons having access to the antiretroviral drugs treatment in 2007 it is accessibility from both ends - that the government reach to all those in need and the accessibility of the positive persons to these facilities - that becomes imperative. While the lack of services directly impacts the positive person, the lack of information and misinformation impacts not just the positive persons, but also their families and the manner in which they are looked upon and treated within their communities. 

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} The book comes at a time of mixed fortunes for these groups/minorities since the Union Health Minister has shown serious intent to amend Section 377 - which in its current form criminalizes homosexuality in the country, even almost one and a half century after it was first declared illegal under British rule - without compromising on protection of child rights and from child abuse. On the other side are the government's contentious moves to amend the Immoral Trafficking (Prevention) Act which many believe will push the trade into darker zones and alleys of victimization.

And yet these are narratives of people who even in the near hopeless situations have worked out compromises sometimes with their spouses - like the wife who knows about her husband's homosexuality and is at peace with it; a son who can stay at home as long as he dresses like a man indoors even as he leads a double life the minute he steps out of the secure confines of his home; or with law-enforcers where these groups learn to negotiate within already claustrophobic spaces.