Arrests of AIDS Outreach Workers in India

August 16, 2001

Arrests of AIDS Outreach Workers in India Trigger Activist Protests

KAISER DAILY HIV/AIDS REPORT - Wednesday, August 15, 2001

Activists representing nearly 40 organizations demonstrated in Delhi on Monday

in a sit-in protest of the July 7 arrest and continued detention of four AIDS

outreach workers in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Reuters Health

reports. The detained individuals worked for two NGOs, the Naz Foundation

International and Bharosa Trust, that provide HIV/AIDS education and prevention

services for men who have sex with men. Uttar Pradesh police arrested the

workers for " promoting homosexuality, which is inimical to Indian cultural

values " and charged them with crimes that fall under various sections of the

Indian Penal Code, including Section 377 -- " criminal conspiracy to cause the

commission of carnal intercourse against the order of nature " -- and sections

relating to obscenity laws, the Copyright Act and the Indecent Representation of

Women Act. They are being held without bail until an Aug. 16 hearing.

'Serious Implications'

The NGOs said that the arrests are among a series of " repressive measures

unleashed by government agencies against NGOs working on sexuality-related

issues " in Uttar Pradesh and criticized the government for human rights

violations based on sexual orientation, its failure to protect NGOs performing

HIV/AIDS services and the misuse of Section 377. The NGOs said in a statement,

" This case has serious implications for any organization working in a field

which might be deemed inappropriate -- be it sexual and reproductive health,

safe sex and HIV/AIDS interventions, right to health ... [or] any human rights

issue. " Anand Grover, director of the HIV/AIDS unit of the Lawyers Collective,

told Reuters Health, " The implications of such acts are going to be disastrous.

Lots of groups would not be interested in availing the services in such

circumstances and interventions would not reach out to the people intended. How

are we to fight HIV/AIDS under the circumstances? " Dennis Altman, co-chair of

the Sixth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, said he was

concerned about the arrests. " Such work with hard-to-reach, marginalized and

stigmatized populations is recognized globally as central to every country's

effectiveness in combating HIV/AIDS and conforms with the 'best practice' models

of HIV prevention promoted by international agencies such as UNAIDS, " he said.

Protests of the arrests have begun in several other Indian cities, including

Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, Bombay, Bangalore and Pune (Kumar, Reuters Health,

8/13).

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