Women And
AIDS
By Kamala
Sarup
HIV/AIDs prevention
programme cannot be successful and sustainable
in
Nepal unless women are financially
dependent and are in a position to
control what happens to their own bodies.
Armed conflict, widespread abuse of women's rights and illicit
trafficking of girls and women are major reasons leading to increasing
discrimination against women.
Nepal desperately needs a
new and comprehensive approach to both
women's rights and deal with HIV/AIDS crises. HIV/AIDS
prevention
programme, to be truly
effective, must include
parallel economic and
educational
initiatives for women. If HIV
continues to infect younger
women, it will have an all-round effect on our economic
development
and also on the overall
income of the family. HIV
related illness and death create new poverty and national
indebtedness.
Recent reports say as much
as 62,000 people in Nepal are infected with HIV virus. Although HIV cases
are rising, the government is yet to
provide
sufficient funds to combat
the syndrome. Apart from the Kathmandu
Valley, HIV infection is concentrated in urbanised areas and
districts
in the mid-west and far
Western region.
The low status accorded to
women in Nepal contributes to their
vulnerability by limiting access to the means and resources that
they
need to protect themselves,
such as knowledge and awareness and health
care services. For women living in Nepal, the situation
is
particularly worrisome. Commercial sex
continues to be illegal in most of the Asian countries including in Nepal,
but it is often hidden
and clandestine
work, which makes prevention interventions
difficult.
So, how can we overcome the
social responses to fear,
denial, stigma and discrimination that accompany this
epidemic?
We cannot let another
International AIDS Day to come and go
without
understanding that women's
economic and social inequality kills young
girls and women. Today marks an urgent occasion to mobilize
the
governments and international agencies
to do what is smart and what is
right.
The worldwide HIV/AIDS
scourge is now approximately 25 years old.
What
began in Africa and reached
San Francisco and New York as the "Gay
Plague" in the bad, old, ignorant days is now a worldwide
epidemic
primarily killing young
women in poor countries in Asia and Africa.
There have been enormous
advances in research, medical treatments
and
drug protocols that have opened useful,
productive lives for tens of
thousands of people and women who would have received a death
sentence
in the old days. But these
drug treatments are expensive, require
great discipline to stick to, and are unaffordable to vast numbers
of
the
population.
There have been significant
disputes between Western pharmaceutical
manufacturers who have invested billions of dollars in research
to
make new drugs and poor nations who
have violated patents to get
treatments to their citizens. Is there a right and wrong in
these
disputes? Depends on where
one is.
The fear-mongers who
attached their own religious and political
agendas
to the HIV/AIDS epidemics
have largely been sidelined. Most people in
the developed world realise the nature of the disease and know
people
who have been affected by
or died from it. The developing world now
has to deal with ignorance and many social taboos in treating
the
disease. There has been progress in
treating HIV/AIDS worldwide, but
it comes more slowly than many would
prefer.
If, as many suspect, there
may be pandemic in the world near
future, the fight against HIV/AIDS may contain some useful
lessons. Until people start dying
who policy makers know and care about,
little will be done. That is the lesson of HIV/AIDS in the last
25
years.
A woman's health, if well
cared for, can help promote
peace in
practical terms. We should
not forget that political instability, and
political crisis have an undeniable impact upon women's health. A
sick
and vulnerable population
including women promotes
social
instability. Investing in
the health sector makes good sense for
conflict prevention. It will also help societies to be well aware of
the risks involved with HIV/AIDS and implement programmes to fight against
it in a concerted way.
(Kamala Sarup contributes regularly to Nepalnews. She can be reached at ksarup@yahoo.com)
(Editor’s Note: Nepalis, wherever they live, as well as friends of Nepal around the globe are requested to contribute their views/opinions/recollections etc. on issues concerning present day Nepal to the Guest Column of Nepalnews. Length of the article should not be more than 1,000 words and may be edited for the purpose of clarity and space. Relevant photos as well as photo of the author may also be sent along with the article. Please send your write-ups to editors@mos.com.np and your comments/suggestions to feedback@mos.com.np)
