People living with HIV demand immediate tabling of the HIV/AIDS Bill

CHENNAI, India - July 18, 2013 - PRLog -- The activists demanded that the Bill should be tabled in Parliament in the upcoming monsoon session. The Bill is pending with the government for the last seven years.

HIV/AIDS Bill was finalized by the government in July 2006. However, seven years have passed but the Bill has not been tabled in the Parliament.  Expressing the anguish over the delay in bringing the Bill to the Parliament, Ms. Daisy David, a person living with HIV said, “This delay in tabling the Bill in Parliament is totally unacceptable. This Bill is very important for the people living with HIV. However, the much required legislation has never been a priority for the government.”

The Bill protects people living with and affected by HIV from discrimination in both public and private sector. “People living with HIV are discriminated in both public and private sector. This is for the first time that private sector has been brought within the ambit of discrimination in our country. We demand that the Bill should be tabled in Parliament, in the upcoming monsoon session,” said Kumaravel from Thiruvallur Network of Positive People.

Also, the Bill puts an obligation on the state to provide complete treatment including anti retroviral (ARVs), diagnostics, treatment for opportunistic infections and nutritional supplements to every HIV positive people, free of cost and as a matter of right. Noori from South Indian network of people living with HIV/AIDS said, “Although the government is providing 1^st line and 2^nd line treatment through its ART centers, they are not providing the 3rd line treatment. Also, the medicines for opportunistic infections are not available. This Bill which provides for complete treatment for HIV positive people should be taken up by the government, on a priority basis.”

The Bill has been pending with the government since 2006. In August 2007, the Bill was sent to the Law Ministry.  But it was only in March 2010 that the Law Ministry cleared the Bill and sent it back to the Health Ministry. However, in the last three years since then, the Bill is just moving between the Law Ministry and the Health Ministry and has not been tabled in the Parliament.  Mr. Reni Jacob from World Vision said, “The way this Bill is languishing between the two ministries is very disappointing. We demand that the government should table the Bill in Parliament in the monsoon session.”

Presently, the Bill has once again been sent to the Law Ministry.