Socio-Economic Impact of HIV and AIDS in Tamil nadu

Discrimination at workplace
Many of the participants had not revealed
their status at their workplace fearing
discrimination. However, a number
of women who were working as wagelabourers
mentioned that since they were
unable to go to work regularly because of
their ill health, the others were probably
aware of their status. In their case, neither
their employers nor their co-workers
treated them badly or any differently
from the others.
One of the participants, a construction
worker, had a different story to narrate.
The contractor with whom he was working
had stopped giving him work when he
came to know about the participant’s
HIV status, since he was afraid that a
PLWHA may not be able to come to work
regularly. Because of this, he had decided
not to reveal his HIV status to his current
employer.
Discrimination in the
community
The general perception was that in the
last two years, a lot of changes have taken
place in the attitude of people towards
PLWHA. An incident that took place
about four years ago was narrated by one
of the participants. When a man died of
AIDS in their village, nobody went for his
cremation, and the community isolated
the family. His widow got married to
another PLWHA. Now the attitude of
the people has changed due to the
awareness campaign undertaken by
the Network activists. People have now
realised that HIV does not spread by
touching those who are HIV-positive.
Discrimination in the family
Most of the participants did not complain
about any discrimination in the family
circle. They do get visitors and are
invited for social functions. However,
one of them mentioned that his relatives
were not interacting freely with him. It
is interesting to note that stigma and
discrimination seem more of an urban
and middle-class phenomenon. The rural
poor seem to accept the HIV-positive
more easily. This was corroborated by the
experience of a woman participant who
was somewhat educated and belonged
to the lower middle class. Although her
brother’s family supported her after she
became a widow, they told her to keep her
bed and vessels separately and not to kiss
her daughter, who is HIV-negative. They
were always scared that they might catch
the infection from her. Her parents were
worried that it would be difficult for them
to get her younger sister married. Hence,
they immediately arranged the younger
sister’s marriage even though she was
only 16. However, another participant
had a very different experience. In his
house, his mother, brothers and sisters
were taking special care of him since
they felt that he was not going to live for
long.
The participants were asked if they
had any problem in getting houses on
rent. None of them seemed to have
faced any such problem. This shows
that discrimination can be much less
in rural areas.
Children’s education
Generally, the participants mentioned
that they did not have any problem
in getting their wards admission in
schools and all of them were sending
their children to school. In the case of
children who were studying in public
schools, the teachers as well as the
parents of other students seemed to
know about their HIV status. However,
one of the participants whose children
Annexures
133