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| LAST UPDATE: Monday, 30 June, 1998 21:13 GMT B A D P O L I T I C S ...all the news, as it happens | ||
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| LAST UPDATE: Monday, 30 June, 1998 21:13 GMT B A D P O L I T I C S ...all the news, as it happens | ||
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| India: Bad Politics Form Bad Policies | ||
| In government
documents the AIDS epidemic in India is referred to as being in its early stages, but
Radhika Ramasubban disagrees. ''This, I believe, is a euphemistic description of an
epidemic whose real epidemiological and social dimensions are still inadequately
understood 12 years after the first case of AIDS was isolated in India, '' she said at a
session on the role of politics in policy making. What does this position of a country with three million people living with HIV have to do with politics? Quite a lot, at least where implementation of programmes concerning HIV prevention is concerned, she says. In her work at India's Centre for Social and Technological Change, Ramasubban is frustrated that AIDS has not received recognition as a priority problem from the Indian government. |
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''In the 1980's when
Africa was [the central focus of] AIDS, India on the other hand took refuge in postures of
denial on the grounds that AIDS was a foreign disease,'' she said. ''Until 1992, AIDS was considered a problem of vigilance by law and order agencies, through deportation of sex workers to their respective homes and suspicion of foreigners.'' The real issues like human rights and access to treatment were ignored she said. "Change is needed."
this story can also be found in The Bridge, the onsite print newspaper |
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