PEPFAR and India

[Guest guest]

Dear Forum,

In my opinion it is not that lamentable that India is not on the US President's

Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) list. While Bush pledged $15 billion

over 5 years, every opportunity he gets, he cuts the spending. first $3bn per

year became $2.2bn. But as of now, only $350 *million* has been spent.

Bush appointed Randall Tobias as " Global AIDS Coordinator " the former CEO of a

huge pharmaceutical- Eli Lilley. No wonder he doesn't want to give money to

India! Indian generics will cost Bush's buddies a fortune!

1/3 of the money spent on HIV/AIDS prevention is earmarked for abstinence-only

education. The Bush administration also validates the Vatican's claim that

condoms to not work- that they leak. (For more information, there is a BBC

documentary that interviews the scientists whom the Vatican quoted in their

" report " that condoms do not work. All the scientists interviewed said condoms

do work and they do promote condom use.) In fact scientists worldwide agree that

condoms are 80-96% effective in preventing transmission when used

correctly and consistently.

Abstinence-only education would be a death sentence for India. Just a little

below 2/3 of the infections in India are among women. I do not want to make a

blanket statement but in my opinion, for most Indian women, especially poor

women, it is difficult or impossible to abstain due to child marriage, forced

marriage, or just any marriage in general in which many Indian men believe sex

is their right. For them to demand condom use of their husband or partners,

demand faithfulness, or refuse sex would probably earn them a beating at best,

or being kicked out of their homes onto the street at worst.

Men most often dictate the terms of sex in India, and this is fatal for women.

Marriage itself is one of the highest (if not THE highest) risk factor for

Indian women to HIV.

India would do better soliciting money from private donors, as it has been, such

as Gates and Clinton. As far as I know, they do not impose abstinence-only

policies.

In addition to under-funding his own plan, Bush has also decided to cut funding

for GFATM by 64%. He also says the Global Fund " sponsors terrorism " because it

provides grants to countries on his axis of evil or whatever he calls it.

And finally, though this is little consolation, there are thousands of activists

in the US lobbying the present gov to change its policies, and also for a change

in administration.

Kerry's HIV/AIDS platform is MUCH better. ($30bn by 2008, generic meds approved,

funds for women and girls especially microbicides, fully funding GFATM, etc). I

imagine he will be working closely with Clinton who does focus on AIDS quite a

bit. There is hope....

Regards,

Joya Banerjee

E-mail: <jb2026@...>