**********************************************************
SAATHII Electronic Newsletter
HIV NEWS FROM INDIA

Source: The Hindu, Express India, Thaindian.com, The Times of
India, The Nav Hind Times and Livemint.com.

Posted on: 03/04/2008

COMPILED BY: Jacob Boopalan, and L. Ramakrishnan
SAATHII Chennai Office.

Note: this compilation contains news items about HIV/AIDS
published in the Indian media, as well as articles relevant to
HIV/AIDS in India published internationally. Articles in this
and previous newsletters may also be accessed at
http://www.saathii.org/orc/elibrary

===============================================================

1. Free palliative care centre to be set up
The Hindu, March 17, 2008.
http://www.hindu.com/2008/03/17/stories/2008031752630100.htm

2. HIV prevalence rate among MSM in city a big worry
Express India, March 21, 2008.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/HIV-prevalence-rate-among-MSM-in-city-a-big-worry/286955/

3. Anti-gay bias evicts dying AIDS patients in Nepal
Thaindian.com, March 21, 2008.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/south-asia/anti-gay-bias-evicts-dying-aids-patients-in-nepal_10029692.html

4. HIV focus shifts to man-to-man affairs
The Times of India, March 23, 2008.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/HIV_focus_shifts_to_man-to-man_affairs/articleshow/2890208.cms

5. Soon, law to protect HIV+ patients from bias
The Times of India, March 24, 2008.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Soon_law_to_protect_HIV_patients_from_bias/articleshow/2892712.cms

6. 80 new cases of HIV detected in J&K
The Nav Hind Times, March 24, 2008.
http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=032573

7. Indian scientist discovers how HIV turns food poisoning into lethal infection
Thaindian.com, March 25, 2008.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/indian-scientist-discovers-how-hiv-turns-food-poisoning-into-lethal-infection_10030938.html

8. US pharma industry to adopt Indian standards
LiveMint.com, March 26, 2008.
http://www.livemint.com/2008/03/26001935/US-pharma-industry-to-adopt-In.html

9. 70,000 Indian TB patients need second-line treatment: WHO
The Nav Hind Times, March 26, 2008.
http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=032737

10. Cops clueless about helping HIVs
The Times of India, March 27, 2008.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Cops_clueless_about_helping_HIVs/rssarticleshow/2903044.cms

===============================================================

1. Free palliative care centre to be set up
The Hindu, March 17, 2008.
http://www.hindu.com/2008/03/17/stories/2008031752630100.htm

TIRUCHI: A day care centre and hospice offering free palliative
care for patients with degenerative illness will be soon set up
here by the Palliative Care Association of Tiruchi.

Announcing this at the inauguration of the association on Sunday,
T. Mohanasundaram, founder of the association and director of
Sudharshna Palliative Care Hospital, said the hospice would offer
in-patient services based on the severity of the diseases.
The district administration had offered to identify a suitable
site for the purpose. The centre would cover patients with chronic
ailments including HIV/AIDS, cancer, renal failure, and neurotic
and psychiatric disorders. Resources would be raised locally and
free medicines distributed.

After cardiovascular diseases, cancer and HIV/AIDS stood second
in terms of the number of patients affected every year. Despite
medical sophistications, the degenerative diseases were painful
for the patients and the treatments, in most cases, aggravated
the pain.

The association was conducting contact classes for doctors and
paramedical staff for a two-month-long training programme conducted
by the Indian Association of Palliative Care. It would also offer
short-term courses for volunteers from the city to assess and
identify patients at different localities.

District Revenue Officer A. Nambirajan distributed certificates
to 17 doctors and nine nurses who appeared for the examination
of the certificate course in palliative care conducted by IAPC.

===============================================================

2. HIV prevalence rate among MSM in city a big worry
Express India, March 21, 2008.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/HIV-prevalence-rate-among-MSM-in-city-a-big-worry/286955/

Pune: Pune is fast emerging as a top destination of HIV
prevalence among men having sex with men (MSM) - 23.6 per cent
of this category has the virus. The city has been at the receiving
end on this front with the figures having jumped from 12.8 per
cent in 2004, to 14.8 per cent in 2005 and close to 24 per cent
in 2006. And, it can only have grown in 2007, given that there
are many gays among married men.

Now this high-risk group is set for a comprehensive package of
prevention services under the third phase of the National AIDS
Control Programme (NACP-3).

According to the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO)'s HIV
sentinel surveillance and HIV estimation- 2006 – urban areas
like Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, Surat, Vadodara, Rajkot and Kolkata
have recorded a very high HIV prevalence among MSM.

Dr R R Gangakhedkar from National AIDS Research Institute (NARI)
too pointed out that there was a high percentage of gays among
married men. While the number of interventions has increased
over the years, the third phase of the NACP will now concentrate
on access to Sexually Transmitted Infections services to be
provided by the NGO itself. At a state level media consultation
on HIV/AIDS organised by the Centre for Advocacy and Research
held on Thursday , various concerns and issues of MSMs and People
Living with HIV/AIDS networks were discussed. Jasmir Thakur,
coordinator of the Sambhavana Society that deals with 1,140 MSMs
in Pune and 2,800 in Mumbai strongly urged that 'homosexuality
should not be medicalised'.

Sex workers can be identified in brothels but MSMs are not that
easily visible and while they can be located at public toilets,
there are also found at other sites like shopping malls railway
stations and others.

In Pune there are 26 key sites and in Mumbai there are 111 sites
where the society conducts its outreach programme for the MSMs,
says Meena Chitale, the Pune coordinator of Sambhavana Society.
"We have urged the Maharashtra State AIDS Control Society to
extend our coverage from 500 to 2,500 MSM," says Thakur. Monitoring
access and utilisation of condoms and behaviour change will be
another strategy to tackle the problems faced by MSM.

Meanwhile according to the NACO surveillance data the number of
MSM population for the country is 2,352,133. The use of condoms
was the highest in Mumbai and lowest in Chennai, according to
the baseline survey on MSM carried out in Bangalore, Chennai,
Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai.

===============================================================

3. Anti-gay bias evicts dying AIDS patients in Nepal
Thaindian.com, March 21, 2008.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/south-asia/anti-gay-bias-evicts-dying-aids-patients-in-nepal_10029692.html

Kathmandu: Twelve men diagnosed with AIDS, four of whom are
terminally ill and unable to walk, were thrown out and the AIDS
hospice and care centre run for them shut down in Nepal due to
the prevailing anti-gay bias, without any human rights group
intervening on their behalf. Just as Nepal's sexual minorities
were celebrating the community's first participation in a national
election as contestants, the AIDS hospice run in Kathmandu for
homosexuals by Nepal's pioneer gay rights organisation was closed
down Thursday night by the landlord after pressure from the
neighbours.

The hospice, sponsored by the Elton John Foundation and started
by the British pop icon to fight AIDS worldwide, was run by Blue
Diamond Society, Nepal's spearheading gay rights organisation.
The group is also funding 12 members from the sexual minorities
to contest the crucial April 10 election.

"Since the hospice was started two-and-a-half years ago, we were
forced to move it four times," said Sunil Pant, founder of the
society and a poll contestant himself.

"Though we are prompt in paying the rent, the landlord comes
under pressure from his neighbours to throw us out once it becomes
known that there are AIDS patients in the hospice."

On Thursday, the eve of Holi celebrations in Nepal, the society's
members were busy moving x-ray machines, ambulances and the
patients to its own office, where the main hall was converted
into an emergency hospital.

Four of the patients are unable to walk on their own and had to
be carried.

They are aged between 25 and 40 years and are mostly from the
Terai plains along the India-Nepal border, where the incidence
of HIV/AIDS is high due to the migration of thousands of Nepalis
every year to neighbouring towns of India in search of work.

The migrants are mostly little-educated, blue-collar workers who
are single or leave their families behind and end up visiting
Indian brothels during their long, lonely and difficult sojourn.

The closure of the hospice comes at a time Nepal's growing gay
rights movement has caught the eye of the world as well as its
own political parties.

For the first time in Nepal's history, 12 gays, lesbians and
eunuchs are in the poll fray, with six of them having been fielded
by a minor communist party.

Two of the biggest parties in the country, Prime Minister Girija
Prasad Koirala's Nepali Congress as well as the Maoists, addressed
the hitherto excluded community in their election manifestos
for the first time, pledging to address their problems.

The gay rights movement got a shot in the arm last year after
Nepal's Supreme Court recognised sexual minorities as "natural
persons" and ordered the government to recognise them as the
third gender.

But despite the court asking the state to end the discrimination
against gays, the community is still stigmatised.

Last year, senior government officials and human rights workers
in far western Nepal argued that homosexuals were perverts and
any initiative to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS among the
community was tantamount to "polluting" society.

===============================================================

4. HIV focus shifts to man-to-man affairs
The Times of India, March 23, 2008.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/HIV_focus_shifts_to_man-to-man_affairs/articleshow/2890208.cms

PUNE: Truck driver Jagjeet (36) claims he's not homosexual. But
because of unavailability of female companionship during his
long drives, he has had unsafe sex with the truck's cleaner over
the last two years.

A number of men having sex with men are among those at highest
risk of being exposed to HIV.

This has forced the National Aids Control Project (NACP) III
to put long-distance truckers, prisoners, migrants (including
refugees) and streetchildren in the high priority agenda in its
intervention programme.

"I am married and have two children. I am not a homosexual. But
I have been having sex with my cleaner for the last two years.
However, it has not affected my married life. I was not aware
that having sex with a man could make me vulnerable to HIV,"
said Jagjeet.

"According to estimates, there are five lakh long-distance truckers.
Under the NACP III, we are making efforts to reach them," said
R.R. Gangakhedkar, deputy director (clinical research), National
AIDS Research Institute (NARI). Children sleeping on the streets
are also vulnerable, he added.

Bindumadhav Khire of Sampathik — a men's sexual health
organisation — says, "All men having sex with men should not be
put under only one category. There are men who are attracted only
towards the same gender, bisexuals who are attracted to both
genders and other homosexuals like truck drivers and prisoners,
who have sex with men in the absence of a female partner."

Khire said, "Truck drivers, prisoners or soldiers may not be
homosexuals, but in the absence of woman partners, many of them
might get involved with the same gender. Unsafe sex in these
cases is risky, as it is in the case of opposite gender partner,"
says Khire.

Khire said that many men who have sex with men stay in seclusion
and don't discuss their problems openly. "This suffocation results
in destructive tendencies and unsafe sexual practices, which
could lead to HIV infection," Khire said.

Vijay Nair, project director of Udaan, said that the rate of HIV
infection among the men who have sex with men was alarming.
He insisted that distribution of condoms and information regarding
its use should be disseminated at every level.

The specific objective of NACP III is to reduce the rate of new
infections by 60 per cent in the first year of the programme in
high prevalence states, so as to obtain a reversal of the epidemic.

===============================================================

5. Soon, law to protect HIV+ patients from bias
The Times of India, March 24, 2008.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Soon_law_to_protect_HIV_patients_from_bias/articleshow/2892712.cms

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI: Denying patients suffering from HIV their
right to work and any discrimination in their treatment could
soon lead to jail terms.

The health ministry plans to table in the long-awaited AIDS
anti-discrimination bill in the coming monsoon session of Parliament.
The Bill seeks to prohibit any social or financial discrimination
against those affected by the virus.

Health minister A Ramadoss said in Mumbai on Saturday, "We will
move the Bill for an Act to deter discrimination against HIV
patients in workplaces, educational institutions and treatment
centres. It is worrisome when doctors turn away HIV patients or
corporates shun people because they are HIV positive. Another
worrying factor is schools refusing admission to HIV positive
children."

The Bill - originally prepared by activists, lawyers and experts
at the National AIDS Control Organisation - has been pending
with the law ministry for the past few months.

"Though the health ministry has accepted it, the law ministry
has raised some concerns," said Anand Grover, director of NGO
Lawyers Collective.

India has an estimated 2.7 million HIV patients as per a 2007
study by Naco.

The Bill, in its current form, has underlined provisions like
right to equality, right to autonomy, right to privacy and health,
right to safe working environment and right to information for
all HIV positive people.

Ramadoss, who was speaking at the HIV Congress 2008 on Saturday,
said the National AIDS Control Programme is in the process of
refining its data to determine the number of HIV patients per
district in order to provide them better care.

Ramadoss also criticized doctors for the "irrational" use of
powerful Anti Retroviral Treatment (ART) for short periods which
reduced the reaction of patients to the drugs and raised the cost
of treatment. "At present, it costs the government Rs 5,000
a year to provide HIV patients with treatment with the first
line drugs but the second line drugs cost close to Rs 1 lakh
per month," he said.

The government has set up 147 treatment centres and is expected
to treat three lakh patients free of cost in the next three years,
he added.

===============================================================

6. 80 new cases of HIV detected in J&K
The Nav Hind Times, March 24, 2008.
http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=032573

Srinagar: Eighty new cases of HIV have been detected in Jammu
and Kashmir till March 15 this year, taking the total number of
people detected with the HIV to 1,210 in the state so far.

"So far 1,210 cases of HIV/AIDS have been reported in Jammu and
Kashmir. The number was 1,130 last year," the state AIDS Prevention
and Control Society director, Mr M A Wani said here today.

He said 92 per cent of the victims were in the age group of
20-50 years.

"Although the number of HIV cases in the valley is very low,
the growing number of intravenous drug users (IDUs) pose a major
challenge," he said.

"Kashmir has thousands of IDUs. The IDUs alone make up more
than four per cent AIDS cases in India," he said adding 250 IDUs
have been identified in Srinagar.

He said the SAPCS has so far short listed six NGOs to help the
IDUs in de-addiction and sanctioned projects to some of them.

"As far as creating awareness among people is concerned, Jammu
and Kashmir tops the charts. We have been able to achieve 88 per
cent success, 17 per cent above the national percentage of 61,"
Mr Wani said.

He said the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education has also
decided to include a compulsory paper on AIDS for class IX and
have at least one question on this topic in the final exams for
class X.

Mr Wani said the SAPCS had already trained clerics, teachers
and students to educate people at the grassroot level.

He said, "We have covered about 70 per cent of higher secondary
schools and 90 per cent medical staff, including doctors. They
work as ambassadors of our project."

===============================================================

7. Indian scientist discovers how HIV turns food poisoning into lethal infection
Thaindian.com, March 25, 2008.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/world-news/indian-scientist-discovers-how-hiv-turns-food-poisoning-into-lethal-infection_10030938.html

London: Research at University of California Davis (UC Davis)
co-authored by an Indian origin scientist has discovered a mechanism
by which HIV turns food poisoning into fatal infection using
an animal study.

Nearly half of all HIV-positive African adults who become infected
with salmonella bacteremia die from what otherwise would be
a seven-day bout of diarrhea.

Now, a team of researchers along with Satya Dandekar has found
that a defect in the immune response is what is responsible for
Salmonella to cause such a deadly infection.

We have found the defect in the immune response that allows
Salmonella to cross the mucosal barrier of the gut, enter the
bloodstream and infect other organs, Nature quoted Andreas Baumler,
a UC Davis professor of medical microbiology and immunology and
co-author of the study, as saying.

Viral infection of the intestine results in the depletion of
a type of white blood cell, called Th-17, in the gut mucosa.

This white blood cell in turn produces IL-17, a cytokine or
chemical messenger that plays a crucial role in the immune systems
response. It brings other immune system cells to the site of
infection.

An interruption of this response in the gut could also be how
HIV evades the powerful drugs used to treat AIDS.

We think the real battle between an individuals immune system
and HIV is happening in the gut mucosa where there is massive
destruction of immune cells, said Satya Dandekar, professor and
chair of the department of medical microbiology and immunology.

In HIV-infected patients, there is a gradual loss of T helper
cells CD4+ T that organize the immune systems attack on viruses.
In the gut mucosa however, this decline is very rapid.

The researchers found that animals infected with simian
immunodeficiency virus (SIV), an established model for HIV
infection, had either a significantly lower response or did not
produce measurable amounts of the Th17 cells in large amounts.

This muted response, the boffins stated, is used by Salmonella
to travel from the gut to the peripheral blood.

Using mice, they confirmed that the deficiency of the IL-17
receptor, an arm of the mucosal immune response, causes defects
in the mucosal barrier of the gut, helping Salmonella travel.

The results of the study were published online by Nature Medicine
March 23.

===============================================================

8. US pharma industry to adopt Indian standards
LiveMint.com, March 26, 2008.
http://www.livemint.com/2008/03/26001935/US-pharma-industry-to-adopt-In.html

The US standard has no monographs for antiretroviral drugs
because of a strict patent regime there

Mumbai: When you find that the quality standard mentioned on
a US multinational drug maker's AIDS drug label reads Indian
Pharmacopoeia, or IP, next time, don't be surprised.

It's official now: The US drug industry would follow the standards
for HIV/AIDS drugs as per the quality parameters prescribed in
the drug standards manual prepared by the Indian Pharmacopoeia
Commission.

By expanding the scope of a cooperation deal signed in 2006 between
the US Pharmacopoeia and the commission, the US will be now
publishing monographs, or a set of referral standards, developed
by IP for about 51 anti-AIDS drugs. The 2006 deal was renewed
by the US early this month, focusing on the adoption of AIDS
drug monographs and also for sharing such standards referred in
the IP for herbal drugs.

The US will publish the anti-drugs monographs from the commission
in its editions, said US Pharmacopoeia India Pvt. Ltd's
vice-president (international) Kumud Sampath. "It may be more
updated with appropriate validation processes..."
 
Pharmacopoeia is the drug standards manual for the industry
published periodically by different countries to help drug
manufacturers as well as the regulators to follow the parameters
for making a standard drug. Currently, the US Pharmacopoeia and
British Pharmacopoeia (BP) are the two widely referred pharmacopoeias
in the world. IP is comparatively new in the world and directly
under the government control so far.

The US standard, which has been followed by drug manufacturers,
not only in the US, but also in several other countries in the
world, didn't have monographs for antiretroviral drugs until now.

Though the US has developed and owned majority of the HIV/AIDS
drugs sold in the world, "a strict patent regime there made USP's
task to develop monographs for such drugs difficult," says the
Indian commission chairman, Nitya Anand.

A drug monograph in the pharmacopoeia contains details of material
quality and specifications, validation and composition processes,
manufacturing processes, use of colours and other ingredients,
information regarding dosage, stability, etc., and the drug
release pattern among others.

Incorporation of Indian monographs as the quality standards in
the US standards would make compliance with this quality standard
recognized almost across the globe. "Since India is the factory
for cheaper generics for the word market, this recognition would
definitely help Indian generic companies to get easy approvals
in other markets without changing its manufacturing standards,"
said a senior research executive working with a multinational
group engaged in drugs and nutritional products, who doesn't
want to be identified.

India Pharmacopoeia Commission, which has been given full autonomy
from the government last week, almost three years after it was
established in 2005, has been very aggressively pursuing two
major projects: The compilation of HIV drugs monographs and for
herbal drugs. The commission published both these sets in two
separate addendum last year to its edition that comes out every
five years.

Anand said British Pharmacopoeia is also talking to the commission
for sharing these two sets of monographs for its editions.

The Indian commission had in 2005 formed task forces involving
industry experts to validate various manufacturing processes
and quality standards adopted by different drug makers to prepare
these monographs.

===============================================================

9. 70,000 Indian TB patients need second-line treatment: WHO
The Nav Hind Times, March 26, 2008.
http://www.navhindtimes.com/articles.php?Story_ID=032737

New Delhi: An estimated 70,000 people detected with multi-drug
resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) require quality second-line
treatment in India, World Health Organisation (WHO) experts say.

In the Southeast Asia region, there are an estimated 150,000
MDR-TB patients, of whom 70,000 are in India alone, Dr Nani Nair,
regional advisor in the department of communicable diseases in
WHO, told IANS.

What India needs is quality second-line drugs to treat these
patients who develop resistance to the first-line drugs, she
said.

MDR-TB is a totally man-made problem as people either take incorrect
treatment or don't complete it, Dr Nair said. "TB could be easily
cured if a patient takes the right drug regimen for six months
regularly," she said.

According to the just-released WHO report, "Tuberculosis in the
Southeast Asia Region', India is home to over 3.4 million
tuberculosis patients - about one-fifth of the global figure -
making it the most TB prevalent country.

It revealed that 325,172 people in India had died of the disease
in 2005 alone. The report said that in 2006 India recorded 1.9
million new cases.

Across the globe, there were 9.2 million new cases of TB during
the same period.

Apart from India, WHO considers countries like Bangladesh, Bhutan,
North Korea, Indonesia, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka,
Thailand and Timor as part of the Southeast Asia region.
The whole region recorded 149,698 MDR-TB cases in 2006.

Of all fresh cases in the country, 1.2 per cent is infected with
HIV and 2.8 per cent of all new cases have been diagnosed with
multi-drug resistant TB, it said.

Dr Nair said the need is to have enough manufacturers to produce
quality second-line drugs. It is important that the produce of
the raw material is also increased so that capacity automatically
goes up, she said.

India has strong pharmaceutical companies. But the need is to
have labs that produce quality drugs, she said.

Dr Nair said WHO has a pre-qualified protocol for a pharma
company wanting to manufacture such drugs.

The quality check starts from assessment of the raw material and
ends at the chemist shops where the drugs are finally sold.
As per norms, experts take a look at the processing unit and
after they are satisfied with the drug sample, they give them
a go-ahead to produce the medicine in bulk.

But the experts continue their vigil. After the drug is prepared,
they conduct further quality checks. After the drug reaches the
chemist shops, another check is conducted to assess whether the
drugs have degraded before their expiry date, she said.

Dr Jai P Narain, WHO director, communicable diseases, said the
need for quality second-line drugs was identified after a study
was conducted in Mumbai a few years ago where it was found that
patients were getting different drugs to treat tuberculosis,
resulting in a person developing MDR-TB.

He said India has taken a public-private initiative under which
the government provides six months' drugs to private practitioners
who treat tuberculosis patients.

Under this initiative, the doctor gives a commitment that he or
she would ensure that the complete treatment would be provided
to a person, he added.

Under DOTS (Directly Observed Treatment, short course), the
government provides free treatment to TB patients. But he said
there is a need to maintain, strengthen and improve the quality
of DOTS implementation across a population of almost 1.2 billion.

We need to involve the private companies and the community members
so that the tuberculosis burden of the country goes down, he added.

===============================================================

10. Cops clueless about helping HIVs
The Times of India, March 27, 2008.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Cops_clueless_about_helping_HIVs/rssarticleshow/2903044.cms

NAGPUR: Sitabuldi police have little idea how to better the lot
of the widow and her eight-year-old daughter, both HIV positive,
currently sheltered at a guest house of an NGO near Maharajbaugh.

The woman, a graduate in arts, has none to support her in the
city, save the police and a handful of social activists from
Young Men's Christian Association. The eyes of the distressed
woman, claiming to be a victim of ill-treatment by her in-laws,
reflect the turmoil going on in her mind due to the uncertainty
over shelter, support and her ailing daughter. Not to mention,
her frail health.

Though the police summoned her father-in-law recently to ensure
that the helpless woman is allowed to enter her house without
any hassles, she has turned down the offer. Completely broken
following bitter quarrels, the disgruntled woman had approached
Sitabuldi police station around a month ago and sought police
intervention in the domestic feud."My father-in-law does not
want me to stay at the house. He insists that I leave the place
with my daughter,"she said.

The Sitabuldi police had initially suggested that the distressed
woman take legal action and file a suit against anyone who denied
her the right to stay at her late husband's home. However, the
police reportedly took more interest after local NGOs and activists
started to intervene.

The father-in-law may have objected initially, but he relented
after police intervened. But when her father-in-law agreed to
allow her into the home, she suddenly refused to accept the
offer,"said senior inspector M D Sharanagat of Sitabuldi police
station."The police tried to convince her to return home with
the ailing daughter, but it was fruitless.

She seems to have developed some mental block about sharing the
house with her father-in-law,"said the senior inspector."Police
is not very keen to book anyone in the case, as there aren't
many legal provisions to back it,"added Sharanagat.

She refused to take help from the police to return to her in-laws
house, but took shelter at a religious venue where she was
surrounded by people who lives on alms. Neither was the shelter
safe for her nor was it hygienic,"said a social worker from YMCA.

Having lost the support of her husband around eight years ago,
the women in her mid-thirties has no clue where to find a shelter.
The woman had just become a mother when her husband, who ran
a paan shop in Sitabuldi, died. She was reportedly diagnosed
being HIV positive too, claimed a social worker attached to YMCA.
Fate played a cruel game as her ailing daughter, now reportedly
under medication for tuberculosis related complications, was also
diagnosed HIV positive in due course.

After completing the last rituals of her late husband, the woman
had reportedly left for her father's place at Rajnandgaon. Her
stay at her father's place was recently truncated when her family
members reportedly started objecting. She claimed that it was
the situation back at her own house that forced her to return
to Nagpur in January this year and stay at her in-laws place.
"I had to return from my father's place after other members
started objecting to my stay there. I was told to shift back
again to Nagpur,"she said.

My father-in-law did not like my returning to his place after
eight long years and he has been non-co-operative since my
return,"she said."I was literally left at his mercy for food
and shelter,"stated the aggrieved woman."They also threw away
my utensils,"she added.

The woman claimed that she was regularly harassed by her
father-in-law and sister-in-law, who settled nearby after marrying
someone of her choice."My father-in-law's only source of income
is the house rent. He gives all of it that amount to my
sister-in-law who in turn provides food to me. Me and my
daughter's share was just unpredictable,"she claimed.

===============================================================

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in the above articles
are those of the respective newspapers, not those of
SAATHII.