Still long struggle ahead, admits TANSACS

CHENNAI: TANSACS has not done any study on stigma or discrimination faced by HIV+ people in the State, so far,” said Alex Parimalam, joint director, Information, Education and Communication with the Tamil Nadu State AIDS Control Society.But National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) had rated Tamil Nadu as a Model State as far as stigma-discrimination prevention went, the JD said.The IEC department, started in 1994,is responsible for creating awareness about HIV among the public and also stigma reduction. So far it has spent `50 crores for this.“When we started, our initial concern was to contain the spread of HIV and prevention was our primary focus. Our campaigns thrived on ‘No cure, so prevention is the only key.’ This has helped in prevention and contained the spread of HIV among the population. But it has also created a fear psychosis among the public about HIV+ people,” he explained.“Now we need to focus on campaigns to remove the baseless fears about HIV+ people transmitting the disease,” he said.Another major reasons for stigma, he pointed out, is the moralistic-puritanical attitude of the people, and lack of correct information which continues to feed stigma. As Alex admits, “To reduce stigma, we have a long way to go.”Meanwhile, NACO has recently tied up with the IPPF to use its stigma index to study the extent of discrimination suffered by the People living with HIV in India.