National Public hearing: Women and children living with HIV in Health Care Settings

[Guest guest]

National Public hearing for women and children living with HIV in Health Care Settings

PWN+ is organizing a National Public Hearing for women and Children living with HIV in the health care settings. This will be organized in November 2006 at New Delhi. The purpose of the public hearing is to create awareness among government high officials regarding the current gaps in the existing health systems of the state and health care discrimination against Women Living with HIV/AIDS and children living with HIV and facilitate a positive response towards the issue.

In 2003, PWN+ along with Center for Advocacy and Research (CFAR)and with support from UNIFEM had undertaken a research study, Positive speaking based on the CEDAW framework. From the study, public hearings were organized in three states which emphasized to the Government the need to address stigma and discrimination in the health care sector. But with the issue needing a response from the National Government due to its severity, there emerges a vital need to organize such a hearing at the National level.

This Public hearing is supported by the Canadian Embassy, New Delhi unit. For the voices and concerns of women and children to be represented at the national level, We have chosen 8 states namely Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat ,West Bengal, Rajasthan, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Assam where issues of stigma and discrimination has already been reported.

For the documentation process, We are identifying 3 case studies ( women and children) from each state on stigma and Discrimination in the health care settings including the current gaps in the health systems in the government sector .The criteria for selection of case studies is that the woman or the child should have faced discrimination recently or have experienced gaps to access the existing health care services the network would be prepared to document .We would also like agencies to give us details on the prevalence rate, services on prevention, care and support in the above mentioned states. The purpose of the project is to create awareness among government high officials regarding the existence of health care discrimination against WLHA and child living with HIV, including the current gaps in the health care system and facilitate a positive response towards the issue.

With reference to the above mentioned research study, Positive speaking, PWN+, with support from National Commission for Women,CFAR and the state level networks had organized public hearings in the states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala in 2004, which emphasized to the Government the need to address stigma and discrimination in the health care sector. This brought in a response at the state level, but now there is an emerging need for a response at the national level, especially in the health care setting and this is being organized to facilitate a better access for women and children at the government hospital without being stigmatized or discriminated.

Therefore we request support from agencies that work for Women Living with HIV and children living with HIV to support us with the documentation process.

Please contact us for reporting on issues of stigma and discrimination in health care settings with case studies to Ms.Shanthi/Ms.Deepa at PWN+ by July 20th 2006

shanthi@...

deepa@...

poswonet@...

and telephone numbers-044-28270204/28203959

Address:

Positive Women Network

9/5,Shanthi Apartments

Avenue Road,Nungambakkam,Chennai-34.

Shanthi

Project officer

Positive Women Network (PWN+) was formed on October 1998 and works for women living with HIV and children affected by HIV/AIDS at the national level. PWN+ is an affiliated organisation of the National Network, Indian Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (INP+) and works at the state level through the state level networks of INP+.