In Bihar villages, HIV positive makes you an outcaste

Visheshwar Paswan and his entire family have become outcastes in their own village, Jagannathpur in Bihar, after three of his family members succumbed to HIV/AIDS.

Jagannathpur (Bihar), Sept 15 : Visheshwar Paswan and his entire family have become outcastes in their own village, Jagannathpur in Bihar, after three of his family members succumbed to HIV/AIDS.

Paswan has lost his two elder sons and a daughter-in-law to the killer virus. His youngest son and two other daughter-in-laws, have also tested positive.

Ever since the death of their son three years ago, the family's world lies shattered, as apart from a family tragedy, villagers have snapped all their social ties with the family. No one in the village visits them or allows them to enter theiromes.

Visheshwar Paswan said he has received no help from the government or any of the villagers.

" I know this is not a disease which spreads by touching but I cannot ask the people to come to my house if they don't want to...I am managing somehow, I had some land but sold it for money, which we needed for treatment," he said.

The village, however, remains ignorant about the disease and has many misconceptions about it. Many fear they could contract the virus through touch.

"We have come to know that HIV has affected this family and therefore we don't go their house...We are afraid we will also be affected...We don't know about this disease but we know that they are HIV positive, so we keep away from their house," said Upendra Paswan, a villager.

Discrimination of AIDS victims in predominantly rural India is on the rise, which India's AIDS control authorities have been trying to fight. There have been instances of doctors denying treatment to AIDS victims or schools throwing out students with HIV positive virus.

India has the world's third highest HIV caseload, after South Africa and Nigeria, with around 2.5 million people living with the virus -- of whom around 70,000 are under 15 years old.

ANI