Socio-Economic Impact of HIV and AIDS in Tamil nadu

Annexures
were studying in an English medium
private school had not revealed his HIV
status to anyone, since he felt that it was
not necessary.
Though they themselves were not
well educated and many of them were
working as labourers, all of them wanted
to educate their children as much as
possible, most of them at least till the
10 th standard. However, when they
were asked whether they would be
able to educate their children upto
tenth class given their health status,
the response of the participants varied
greatly. For instance, the participants
who were daily wage earners were very
clear in their minds that their children
would go to school as long as they (the
parents) could earn and the day they
would stop working, their children
would start working. Other participants
who desired to educate their children
expressed the hope that the Network
or some other organisation would
take care of the education of their
children. Two participants mentioned
that they had enrolled their children
in a boarding school run by an NGO
specifically for the children of HIVpositive
parents.
Impact of HIV status on
employment
The next topic for discussion was the
impact of the infection on their earnings.
Most of the participants were of the view
that the infection had indeed affected
their earning capacity.
1. One of the participants who was a
construction worker mentioned that
while he could work continuously for
about 40-45 days before the onset of
the infection, he could no longer do
so, and needs to take leave for about
four-five days in between as he falls
sick. His earnings have come down
because of this.
2. Another participant who was working
as a local lorry driver with a transport
company was earning Rs. 1500 per
month. He has not been able to work
for the last three years as he had been
suffering from various opportunistic
infections including TB and has
now been forced to give up his job
because of ill health.
3. There were four female participants
who had a different story to tell.
These women were not working
earlier and had started working only
after the death of their husbands.
They are working with the network
and other NGOs. Although these
women take up assignments with
the network as volunteers since it
gives them some income, they seem
to have a larger interest as well. They
want to provide moral support to
other PLWHA and show that they
can continue to lead a productive
life even after becoming positive.
It was seen that a number of HIVpositive
women, especially widows,
have come out into the open and
started speaking out. Some of the
men have also given up their jobs and
joined the network to do voluntary
work.
Coping with the financial
problems
Next, they were asked as to how they
were coping with the financial loss.
There were a number of answers that
came up, the most common being that
they resorted to borrowing. In the case
of the participant who had to give up
his job as a driver, his wife had started
earning as a wage labourer. Some of
the participants mentioned that they
used to wear good clothes and eat good
food earlier, but have had to give up all
134 Socio-Economic Impart of HIV and AIDS in Tamil Nadu, India