Yakin Ertürk, Director, UN Division for the Advancement of Women
...The issues which widows generally face and those encountered by women in developing countries are cause for serious concern. The situation of widows should continue to be featured on the international fora until they become firmly integrated into the policy agenda.
India : Living Hell for AIDS Widows
Late in the evening last October, Pratima Biswal, 26, went to sleep as soon
as she got home from her mother’s funeral. Her father-in-law and another
relative were also asleep in the same house. In the middle of the night,
a few people reportedly saw smoke emanating from the house. By the time they
ascertained that something was amiss, the room in which Pratima was sleeping
was aflame. When she was finally rescued, she had already sustained third
degree burns and died the following day.
Although the post-mortem report indicated homicide, it was silent on Pratima's
health status. The local Medical College declined to reveal that she had tested
HIV+ in January 2004, citing the Supreme Court directive on protecting a person's
HIV status. However, circumstantial evidence and details provided by the villagers
confirm that Pratima was clearly an AIDS patient. Over the past year or so,
she had lost her husband as well as two children to AIDS.
Was Pratima murdered? Circumstantial evidence certainly points towards this.
It was known that Pratima was ill and unable to work; living in virtual isolation
she was in dire need of money for medical expenses. She wanted to sell the
land that had been gifted to her husband but her father-in-law, his brother,
and his older son were dead against this sale. About two weeks before she died,
Pratima had filed a complaint with the police, saying that her husband's family
was obstructing the sale of her property. But before the police could intervene,
Pratima burned to death.
Pratima is not the first AIDS widow in Ganjam district Orissa, who has paid
dearly for having lost her husband to AIDS, having contracted the HIV infection
from him, and facing ruthless and callous treatment from her in-laws. Take
the case of Bhabani Behera of Makarjhola village, also in Ganjam district.
Bhabani's husband died of AIDS; stricken by the fear that Bhabani would become
instrumental in infecting them, her in-laws threw her out of the house. "How
will I feed my two children?" Bhabani asks piteously.
According to the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), 125 men in Orissa
have died of AIDS, but activists say it is very difficult to get an accurate
figure of AIDS-related deaths because AIDS is rarely given as the cause of
death - unofficial estimates suggest a figure of 300 men. Migration for work
is a major reason why Ganjam has the highest number of HIV+ cases in Orissa.
According to Loknath Mishra of ARUNA, a leading NGO working on HIV/AIDS in
Ganjam district, nearly 99 per cent of the HIV+ men contract the virus from
sexual contact outside marriage. The men then infect their unsuspecting wives,
who once widowed have to face the cruelty of their husbands' families and the
wider society.
Poverty, lack of awareness of HIV/AIDS, an acute fear of the dreaded disorder
and greed for property make for the inevitable victimisation of AIDS widows.
Namita Dalai's experience is representative of the lack of knowledge about and
the consequent blind fear associated with AIDS. Namita's in-laws were sympathetic
towards her until they learned that their son had died of AIDS; they then threw
her out. The hapless Namita went back to her parents' home; but the villagers
would have nothing whatsoever to do with the widow of an AIDS victim. Collectively,
they ostracised Namita's parental family.
Between 1999 and 2004 the Orissa state government has received approximately
137 million rupees from the World Bank and 109 million rupees from DFID for
various AIDS control programmes. 79 per cent of this has already been spent,
according to the Minister for Health and Family Welfare. NACO manages 34 centres
in 15 of the 30 districts in the state, and 22 NGOs are working to spread awareness.
But no real aid reaches Orissa’s AIDS widows.
This is an edited version of the article by Manipadma Jena of the Women's
Feature Service.
From WRI Newsletter 2 - Full copies of the Newsletter available from WRI office