Divergent views over pre-marital HIV tests –Goa.

[Guest guest]

Divergent views over pre-marital HIV tests –Goa

Date : Friday May 26,2006. The Navhind Times.

May 25 : A debate on mandatory pre-marital testing of HIV and AIDS organized by

the AIDS Control Society of Goa in Margao this evening saw divergent views being

expressed.

Even as some felt that the test should be mandatory since AIDS was a serious

disease and this would do good, a majority from South Goa felt that the test

should not be forced upon the people and instead be an option.

The debate got an overwhelming response from men and women of South Goa alike.

There were yet others who preferred to be fence - sitters but said that the

issue needed to be thoroughly studied before arriving at any decision.

Starting off the debate, the health secretary, Mr. U. K. Vohra admitted that the

state had failed to educate people on HIV/AIDS and observed that since AIDS

threat was unfortunately not yet recognized in Goa, the state government with a

bid to stop the dreaded disease from growing thought of having the mandatory

pre-marital testing of HIV and AIDS.

“This debate is to seek views. We will not dump anything in you”, Mr. Vohra

assured.

Speaking further, the secretary opined that the misconception about HIV/AIDS in

the state continued, despite of large number of Goans being enlightened.

“It is a major social problem since the reason for the disease is known, while

there is still no cure”, he remarked. He added that there was a stigma attached

to HIV/AIDS and said, “they are treated as social outcasts.”

Debating in favour of the mandatory pre-marital testing of HIV and AIDS, Mr.

D’Silva from Salcete felt that such a test could save children born out

of the marriage between carriers of the virus.

“This can save innocent victims,” he said.

A HIV positive youth Mr. Jaffer Inamdar, President of Positive Lives Foundation,

Organization of People Living with HIV/AIDS in Goa strongly opposing the move

said that the law would only bring about hatred in the society.

The youth who has married to a HIV negative girl narrated his own history. He

outlined how the society treated him as an outcast and how his siblings were

still left unmarried.

“There were leaflets of information against me distributed resulting in my

father’s death,” thrown out from religious groups in the community, he informed.

Giving his opinion, Mr. Raj Vaidya said that the mandatory testing was not like

a populist scheme that the government of the day was offering.

“The HIV/AIDS testing can have serious repercussions. The statements issued by

the Chief Minister and Health Minister on World AIDS Day seemed to be

pre-planned. They were not a bit appropriate,” Mr. Vaidya stated.

He revealed that the Chief Minister had later reacting to a statement of the

United Nations on the issue had immediately changed his tone. “Is there a draft

policy; what is the Centre, state government and Union law ministry’s stand on

the matter,” he sought to know.

________________

In Solidarity

Monalisa Thakur

Vice-President, Positive Lives Foundation “PLF”

Email : plf@...