Unhappy Indian Campaigners Challenge Two Bills’ Optimism

[Guest guest]

Unhappy Indian Campaigners Challenge Two Bills' Optimism

by Anuradha Mascarenhas

TORONTO – The Two Bills – ex-US president Clinton and Microsoft

chairman Gates – Monday predicted a " happy ending " to the HIV/AIDS

epidemic, but their optimism was given a cautious response by Indian

activists who said the billions of dollars that go into fighting the

disease could be better spent.

Huge sums have been received by developing countries to aid their

fight against HIV/AIDS. Last year alone, they spent a sum of US$ 8.3

billion.

India, home to an HIV/AIDS population of 5.3 million, has been the

recipient of at least half a billion dollars since 1999, according

to a rough estimate. And its premier AIDS body, the government's

National AIDS Control Organisation, has projected that it will need

a sum of US$ 2.5 billion for a new phase of programmes set to begin

in November this year.

" We are in the process of launching the third programme and have

planned US$ 2.5 billion in the next five years. Eighty per cent of

the money will be utilised for prevention of HIV, " said India's

Health Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, who is attending the 16th

International AIDS Conference in Toronto.

But Indian AIDS activists gathered in Toronto doubt whether all of

the money will reach those who are most in need of prevention and

treatment.

Dr Usha Rani of the AIDS Prevention and Control Society in the

Indian state of Tamil Nadu said, " maybe just 5-10 per cent of the

allocated funds, " reach the needy. " Most of the funds are spent on

planning how to spend it. "

Arokiadurai, who works on AIDS prevention in Tamil Nadu's

capital Chennai, strongly feels that though there are stringent

conditions and guidelines for funding projects, sometimes funds are

squandered.

" There is meaningless spending at times, " he points out. " If a

project has to be sanctioned then there are meetings at five-star

hotels, where consultants are asked their opinions. Then there will

be a visit abroad to decide finally which non-government

organisation should get the project fund. "

For Aseem Sarode, Director of Human Rights and Law Defenders, the

legal wing of an NGO based in the western city of Pune, it is quite

a struggle to secure funding for his project that provides legal aid

to prisoners infected with HIV and other marginalised groups.

For community-based activists, he said, the process of applying for

funds can be cumbersome and daunting – forms have to be filled in

English, a language not every activist is conversant with. And often

the entire exercise has to be conducted with the help of a

consultant.

How funds are spent in India is crucial to the entire South Asian

region. With a population of over a billion and the presence of

other factors which increase vulnerability to HIV/AIDS, including

low literacy levels, poverty and low status of women, the epidemic

in India can have a major impact on the overall spread of HIV in the

sub-continent, experts say.

A former senior Indian health bureaucrat, also attending the Toronto

conference, said accountability and transparency were key challenges

facing the global effort to combat HIV/AIDS.

" In a democracy like India the ultimate authority that is

accountable is the Parliament, " he said. But he admitted that " in

reality, it is very hard to say whether money is going down to

community-based activists. "

" That remains a major challenge, " he added.

Panoscope issue 2 | 15 August 2006

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