AIDS and law

Impact: Failure to provide treatment to HIV/AIDS patients is a violation of Right to Life under Article 21

By Parul Sharma

Parul Sharma

The government’s stand is highly moralistic — preaching sexual abstinence rather than making condoms available

Anjaiah, his wife, and six children were thrown out of their village in Cudappah district of Andhra Pradesh when Anjaiah was diagnosed hiv positive. The government hospitals also refused to admit him. Anjaiah died a couple of days later. Similarly, on being refused admission in a government hospital for being hiv positive, Damayanti had to deliver her baby in the hospital corridor. She even cut the umbilical cord herself. The incident did not take place in a remote corner of India but in its capital. And, when Narsaiyya tested positive for hiv, he was the last to learn. The doctor chose to inform the villagers first, even though medical ethics demand that the patient be informed first.

Article 21 imposes an obligation on the State to safeguard the Right to Life of every person. Failure to provide timely medical treatment results in violation of his Right to Life guaranteed under Article 21.

The government’s stand is highly moralistic — preaching sexual abstinence and faithfulness to an unwilling population rather than making condoms available. There are only 25 community hiv/aids care centres across the country.

The latest Human Rights Watch (hrw) report from 2004 (Future Forsaken) recognises that children, especially girls, are extremely vulnerable to societal prejudice. Apart from millions of children living with hiv/aids, many others are either orphaned or forced to withdraw from school to take care of their sick parents. According to the report, there are approximately 1.2 million Indian children under the age of 15 who have lost one parent or both to aids.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child in Article 24 recognises the right of children to enjoy “the highest attainable standard of health and to facilities for the treatment of illness and rehabilitation of health.” Seven-year-old Purnima’s parents died of aids. But, before taking her life Purnima’s mother poisoned her. Similarly, 13-year-old Dinesh’s father died of aids a year before hrw met Dinesh. Their mother, who was also hiv-positive, had committed suicide some five months before.

The refusal to treat and perform surgical operations, denial of admission in hospitals, marking hiv positive on the beds occupied by patients, refusal to touch objects used by hiv positive patients, wrapping of dead bodies of hiv positive patients in plastic, imposing additional charges for basic services are some of the discriminatory practices faced.

The added stigma and trauma imposed on hiv/aids-infected people, and on a child’s life is a price our highly moralistic political leaders will pay, when they find themselves preaching Victorian principles, old-fashioned perceptions on sexuality and diseases to a vanished generation.

The writer is a Human Rights Law Researcher